Mexican Judge Issues Ruling in U.S. Kidnaping

In a case that elevated tensions in U.S.-Mexico relations, a Mexican judge has sentenced a former California ranch hand to a 31-year prison term after finding him guilty of abducting and sexually assaulting a Riverside County girl, Mexican authorities said Thursday.

Serapio Zuniga Rios, 28, a Mexican national, was sentenced Wednesday after he was convicted of sexual assault, abduction and burglary in the kidnaping of the 4-year-old girl from a ranch near Temecula in September, 1992, the Mexican attorney general’s office said.

Mexican officials decided Zuniga’s fate on Tuesday after rejecting a request from Washington that he be extradited to the United States--a request backed by several U.S. congressional representatives who took a strong interest in the case.

The matter became an international cause celebre involving high-level officials in both nations at a time when Washington and Mexico City were renegotiating both a new extradition treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

One U.S. lawmaker, Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), said he swung his vote to support NAFTA in November only after Mexico’s then-attorney general personally assured him that the suspect would be extradited.

Mexico has never extradited one of its citizens to the United States for trial, and word that the suspect might be sent north in exchange for free-trade votes rankled sensitive nationalist sentiments south of the border.

In Mexico, many maintained that Zuniga should be tried under Mexican law, which allows the prosecution of its citizens for crimes committed abroad based on affidavits and other evidence submitted to Mexican authorities. U.S. officials sent a thick dossier of evidence accompanying their extradition request.

The Mexican attorney general’s office said Thursday that a judge rejected the extradition request earlier this month. But Mexican officials acknowledged privately that the decision in such a sensitive case probably was made at a much higher level.

Joseph Krovisky, a Justice Department official, declined comment on the case.

After assaulting the girl, whom he abducted while she was sleeping, Zuniga wrapped her in a blanket and hanged the bundle from a tree, police said. Zuniga was allegedly enraged because he had been fired from a job at the ranch, which is owned by the girl’s parents.

He later fled to Mexico, where he was arrested last December after an extensive manhunt, officials said.

The girl has physically healed from the assault but is still recovering psychologically, relatives say.

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Times staff writer Sebastian Rotella in Los Angeles contributed to this story.