Camarena Case Goes to Jury After 9 Weeks : Justice: Panel begins deliberating the fate of four men accused in the 1985 kidnaping and murder of U.S. drug agent.

A federal court jury Monday began deliberating the fate of four men accused in Los Angeles of involvement in the kidnaping and murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena.

The deliberations follow a nine-week trial and more than 8,000 pages of testimony given by about 75 witnesses.

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie spent more than half an hour reading a lengthy set of instructions to the jury. Among other topics, the instructions dealt with the degree of scrutiny that should be applied to testimony from witnesses who have been compensated in connection with the case.

Several key prosecution witnesses who have been paid substantial sums of money for information and expenses by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. These witnesses, some of whom have criminal records, have been paid more than $800,000, according to court documents. Additionally, several of these witnesses and their families have been relocated to the United States, and some have been given immunity from prosecution.

Rafeedie instructed the jury as follows: “You have heard testimony that witnesses have received compensation, immunity or other benefits from the government in connection with this case. You should examine these witnesses’ testimony with greater caution than that of ordinary witnesses. In evaluating that testimony, you should consider the extent to which it may have been influenced by the receipt of compensation and other benefits from the government.”

In closing arguments, prosecutors and defense lawyers clashed sharply about the credibility of these witnesses’ testimony, particularly that offered by Hector Cervantes Santos. Cervantes, a former Guadalajara riot policeman, made incriminating statements against all four defendants. Assistant U.S. Atty. Manuel Medrano said Cervantes had held up well on cross-examination, but several defense lawyers called him “a liar,” and one of them, Martin Stolar, told the jury: “You wouldn’t buy a used car from him.”

Before deliberations began Monday, Rafeedie, outside the presence of the jury, told the lawyers in the case that he had received a note from an unsigned group of “concerned jurors” urging the judge to remove one of their colleagues because “he has slept through much of the testimony.” After questioning the attorneys, the judge decided not to dismiss the juror in question.

Camarena, a veteran DEA agent, was abducted off a Guadalajara street on Feb. 7, 1985, taken to a house owned by Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, interrogated and tortured for two days. His mutilated body and that of his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, who was kidnaped separately the same day, were found a month later at a ranch about 60 miles from Guadalajara.

There have been seven indictments handed down by federal grand juries in Los Angeles growing out of the Camarena murder. Thus far, 22 persons have been indicted in the United States. Several of those persons already have been tried and imprisoned in connection with the case in Mexico. Three of those indicted have been killed.

This was the second Camarena trial in Los Angeles. In 1988, three men were convicted in federal court of being involved in the U.S. agent’s murder and given long prison sentences.

In the current case, jurors are to consider the following charges:

Defendants Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, 45, Ruben Zuno Arce, 60, and Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez, 31, are all accused of kidnaping, conspiracy to kidnap, and aiding and abetting the kidnaping of Camarena. Matta and Bernabe also are accused of the felony murder of Camarena.

Bernabe also is accused of a violent act in aid of racketeering--the kidnaping and murder of Camarena’s pilot, Zavala. Additionally, Bernabe is charged with being an accessory after the fact in the murders of Camarena and Zavala; it is alleged he aided the escape of drug lord Caro, who flew from Guadalajara on Feb. 9, 1985, after a tense, armed standoff between his bodyguards and Mexican Federal Judicial Police.

He currently is serving a long term in a Mexican prison after a conviction there on charges stemming from the Camarena murder.

Defendant Javier Vasquez Velasco, 38, is accused of the murders of Alberto Radelat, a Cuban medical student, and John Walker, an American writer, who were killed on Jan. 30, 1985, after they inadvertently walked into a party of Mexican drug traffickers at a Guadalajara restaurant and were mistaken for DEA agents.

Judge Rafeedie consolidated the restaurant murders with the Camarena case after deciding there was a significant connection between the two events.

Rafeedie told the jurors they could return a verdict on any count against any of the four defendants at any time during deliberations when a unanimous decision was reached.

The jury consists of six women (five white and one black) and six men (two white, two Latino and two black). All four defendants are Latino males, one a Honduran and the three others Mexican.

The jurors were scheduled to resume deliberations this morning.