Jury to resume deliberating in marriage fraud trial

Jurors will resume deliberations today in the trial of a Mexican actress-model and a Los Angeles restaurant manager accused of getting married so she could obtain permanent residency in the United States.

Maria Fernanda Romero Martinez, 28, of Westwood – who uses the stage name Fernanda Romero – and Kent Ross, also 28, of Park La Brea, are charged with federal marriage fraud and making false statements during Romero's application for a green card.

"It was a fraud and a sham ... solely to obtain a green card," Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James Left said in his closing argument Wednesday, telling jurors the couple never intended "to establish a life together."

But Ross' attorney, Michael T. Shannon, told the eight-man, six-woman jury that when the couple got married in 2005, they were "head over heels in love and they were impulsive."

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Romero's lawyer, Michael Nasatir, said the pair were 23-year-old "kids" at the time of their June wedding.

"There are all kinds of marriages," he said. "There are fast marriages, like this one. ... You can look and see in the evidence [this is] a valid marriage."

Left argued during the week-long trial in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles that Romero paid Ross $5,000 to marry her in order to become a U.S. resident, but the two never lived together.

Such a union is known as a "green-card marriage," the prosecutor said, reminding jurors that an ex-boyfriend testified Romero allegedly told him "it was easier to get a green card through marriage then it was as an actor or a model."

Nasatir, though, urged the jury to acquit the pair of all charges, saying "there is no evidence any money was paid" to Ross.

The investigation began when the ex-boyfriend, fashion photographer Markus Klinko, alleged in an unrelated lawsuit that the marriage of Romero and Ross was bogus.

But Shannon told the panel that Klinko – who appears in the Bravo docuseries "Double Exposure" – invented the allegation to get back at the actress after she dumped him.

Romero has appeared in television shows and movies, including alongside Jessica Alba in "The Eye" in 2008 and in the Mexican soap opera "Eternamente Tuya" ("Forever Yours"). She has also hosted the Univision Spanish-language reality show "Control."

Ross described himself as the manager of a pizza restaurant and a working musician who played with a band named The Electric Uh-Oh.

Both took the stand this week in their own defense, testifying that when they married, they loved each other and fully intended to make a go of it until Ross' drinking caused the couple to split.

"They're still married, " Shannon argued. "They have not divorced ... They have had a life together."

As for the allegations that Ross and Romero made false statements to immigration officers, Nasatir said the pair are not "expert form-fillers" and weren't paying close attention to "residences and addresses" when questioned under oath.

"These two young people intended to establish a life together," he said.