Posted on 01/04/2008 4:03:55 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
A man involved in a kidnapping and attempted murder that ended with an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador shot in the head and left for dead on the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping charges. Rogelio Isai "Koki" Garcia, 25, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to kidnap and one count of using a firearm during a violent crime. The first count is punishable by up to life in prison. The second, which has no maximum sentence and will run concurrently with any other convictions, will ensure Garcia receives a minimum 10-year prison sentence.
Garcia was in a group of men who, in February, severely beat Mateo Ezequiel "William" Valiente-Solis at a house in Laredo before driving him to Nuevo Laredo, shooting him twice and leaving him near the Rio Grande.
Valiente-Solis survived the shooting and was able to provide federal agents with information about his attackers.
Garcia, who said in court Thursday that he was diagnosed two years ago with bipolar disorder, said he was with his girlfriend on the night Valiente-Solis was attacked when a friend named Kike, identified in court documents as Enrique Adriano, called him and asked him to come to a house owned by Mario Jesus Obregon. Valiente-Solis, Garcia and several of the other men involved were living with Obregon at the time, according to court records.
According to court documents, Obregon arrived after the other men had begun attacking Valiente-Solis and was told he had to choose a side. He responded that they could do what they wanted with Valiente-Solis, according to the documents.
Valiente-Solis was already tied up when Garcia arrived at the house, which court documents state is on Eagle Trace Road, Garcia said. The other men in the house told him that Obregon had set up a business for Valiente-Solis and Valiente-Solis had "abused his trust" and stolen from Obregon, Garcia said.
Obregon, Garcia, Adriano, Ruben Cabrera "Kiko" Saucedo, Christopher Jaime Cardenas and Santos Ramiro "Ram" Martinez III held Valiente-Solis in the house, according to court documents. Obregon took car keys and a cell phone away from a woman who was outside the house to prevent her from contacting the police, according to court records.
The men, who had been drinking, threatened Valiente-Solis with guns, including an AK-47 rifle and an AR-15 rifle, and beat him, according to court documents. Cardenas beat Valiente-Solis with the AK-47 so severely that he lost an eye, the documents state.
Garcia said Thursday that he kicked Valiente-Solis while the man was tied up and drove him and another man, identified in court documents as Adriano, across the border in Garcia's truck. Once in Mexico, Garcia said, he gave Adriano a gun Garcia owned, which Adriano used to shoot Valiente-Solis.
Adriano shot Valiente-Solis once in the face and once in the torso, while the man was on his knees, begging for his life, according to court documents.
Obregon, Saucedo and Cardenas were found guilty in August by a federal jury of conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and using a firearm during a violent crime. Martinez pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to kidnap. None of the men has been sentenced. Adriano is still at large.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Diana Saldaña said in court Thursday she would recommend to U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen that he accept Garcia's guilty plea.
(Jason Buch may be reached at 728-2547 or by e-mail at jbuch@lmtonline.com)
"Solís, originally from El Salvador, has been a U.S. citizen for six years."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1792715/posts
Los dos Laredos ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
How very um flexible of him.
ping
Those El Salvadorans must be the hardiest wage-puppets of the bunch. I’m immediately replacing my Mexican, Guatemalan and Honduran slave monkeys with El Salvadorans!
(sarcasm off)
Seriously though, I’m curious as to why the thugs used a handgun that couldn’t get the job done when, according to the article, they had military rifles. Bet it had something to do with all the drinking.
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