BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- In 2019, then-Bakersfield College student Jose Omar Reyes Bello gained national attention and widespread support when he was arrested after reading a poem critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE officials claimed Bello was a gang member with a violent past. Bello's supporters claimed his arrest was retaliation for the poem recital.

He became a cause célèbre, represented pro bono by the United Farm Workers Foundation, his plight touted by the ACLU of Southern California as a prime example of suppression of free speech.

Bello's fortunes have changed -- now he's a convicted killer facing decades in prison.

Last week, Bello pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of 58-year-old Douglas Cline in Tulare County, and to two

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