Woman Again Found Guilty in Judge’s Death
The wife of a convicted drug smuggler was found guilty a second time Thursday of conspiring with her husband and his brother to assassinate a federal judge.
Elizabeth Chagra was convicted in the 1979 slaying of U.S. District Judge John Wood of San Antonio.
At the time of his death, Wood was scheduled to hear a case involving Chagra’s husband, Jamiel (Jimmy) Chagra, who was accused of drug smuggling.
A sentencing hearing for Mrs. Chagra, 32, was scheduled for March 10. She faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Much of the testimony and evidence presented in the trial was used in a 1982 trial in San Antonio, in which Mrs. Chagra was convicted on conspiracy charges. An appeals court overturned the conviction because of improper instructions to the jury. The retrial was moved to Austin.
Jimmy Chagra is serving 47 years on a drug smuggling conviction and a conviction of obstructing justice in Wood’s death.
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