Mexican Aide’s Perjury Case Goes to Jury

A jury began deliberating Friday whether a Mexican police official linked to the slaying of a U.S. drug agent in Mexico lied to a federal grand jury investigating the slaying.

The jurors met for about four hours before adjourning for the weekend. They will resume Monday.

The perjury case against Mario Martinez Herrera, a supervisor with the Mexican secret service, arose from testimony Martinez gave to the grand jury Sept. 19, when he said he had only passed through Guadalajara, Mexico.

Federal prosecutors presented witnesses and physical evidence that they claim placed Martinez at the house in Guadalajara where U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Camarena Salazar was tortured after his abduction in February, 1985.

But defense attorney Michael Murray challenged the evidence in his closing statement, saying that the prosecution witness was a longtime paid informant for the DEA who refused to talk to him before he cross-examined him during the trial.

Murray said he learned Casario Garciabueno’s name only 48 hours before he took the stand Tuesday. Garciabueno testified from a wheelchair to which he has been confined since being shot in 1984, apparently as a result of his informant work.

“He is a snitch for the DEA,” Murray said. “For seven years, he has been copping out on people for the money. Seven years he sold himself out, and one day it caught up with him,” Murray said.

“He was gunned down. When you trade ethics for money, some day you have to pay the piper,” he said.

Murray said Garciabueno was motivated to testify against Martinez because the U.S. government has paid his medical bills since 1985.

Garciabueno testified that he had seen Martinez on several occasions in Guadalajara in late 1984.

“He’s got to say something about this man. He’s got substantial motive to lie, and even if he’s not lying, he’s mistaken,” Murray said. “We’ve contended to the bitter end the government has got the wrong man. I suggest (Garciabueno) saw Carlos Martinez each and every time (in Guadalajara).

Carlos Martinez is a known enforcer for Mexican drug lords who Murray argued the government thought they had captured when Mario Martinez was arrested Sept. 15 in Chula Vista. The initial “C” on Mario Martinez’s identification stood for citizen, Murray said.

A second government witness against Martinez did not appear, apparently because he stole a U.S. government vehicle and fled.

The rest of the government’s case was based on the testimony of an FBI agent who is an expert in hair and fibers.

Michael Malone said one of 500 hairs found in the house in Guadalajara matched a hair sample voluntarily given to authorities by Mario Martinez.

Murray told jurors that hair comparisons are unlike fingerprints, from which absolute comparisons can be made.

Department of Justice attorney James Wilson told jurors in his closing statement that Garciabueno was truthful. He ridiculed Murray’s contention that Garciabueno, paralyzed from the waist down, would try to ingratiate himself with the DEA to have his medical bills paid.