Appeal of Figure in DEA Agent’s Killing Is Rejected
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld the conviction of a Mexican man who conspired to torture and murder a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who helped break up a giant marijuana farm.
The court ruled in Los Angeles that the abduction of Juan Ramon Matta-Ballesteros to bring him to trial in the United States was insufficient grounds to dismiss his conviction by a Los Angeles federal court jury.
Matta-Ballesteros was convicted of conspiracy and kidnaping for the 1985 slaying near Guadalajara of Mexican-born DEA Agent Enrique Camarena. Matta-Ballesteros was acquitted of murder charges. He was convicted in Florida on drug charges. Matta-Ballesteros claimed that he was abducted from his Tegucigalpa home by Honduran troops and U.S. marshals who tortured him on the way to the United States. But the appeals panel said Matta-Ballesteros failed to prove governmental misconduct.
The “manner by which a defendant is brought to trial does not affect the government’s ability to try him,” the court said.
Camarena was abducted on a Guadalajara street and taken to a ranch a few miles away, where he endured days of torture before dying.
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