Posted on 12/30/2003 6:37:37 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat
EL PASO - Jimmy Chagra, implicated in the 1979 assassination of U.S. District Judge John Wood Jr., has been freed on parole, his sister said today.
"He served his time and has been paroled," Patsy Chagra told the El Paso Times in its online edition. She said she has spoken to her brother frequently since his Dec. 9 release and added: "He's fine, real happy."
A message left by The Associated Press for Patsy Chagra was not immediately returned.
Jimmy Chagra, 59, was accused of leading a 1979 conspiracy to assassinate Wood, who was scheduled to preside over his trial on drug charges. Wood was gunned down outside his San Antonio home.
Jimmy Chagra was acquitted on murder and murder conspiracy charges, but he later pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder in the attempted assassination attempt of Assistant U.S. Attorney James Kerr in 1978 and was serving a life sentence. Officials previously had reported that Jimmy Chagra had entered the witness protection program after assisting prosecutors in other cases.
Jimmy Chagra's release couldn't be confirmed with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, a spokeswoman said.
Two other members of the Chagra family went to prison in connection with the Wood slaying.
Jimmy Chagra's wife, Elizabeth, was found guilty of delivering a $250,000 to a hit man to kill Wood. She was sentenced to 30 years and died in prison in 1997 of ovarian cancer. Her family waged an unsuccessful fight to have her released on compassionate grounds after the cancer diagnosis.
Jimmy's brother, Joe Chagra, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and served more than six years of a 10-year sentence. Joe Chagra died in a 1996 auto accident in El Paso.
The man accused of shooting Wood, Charles Harrelson, was found guilty and is serving a life sentence. His most recent appeal, filed a day before the statute of limitations expired in 1997, was rejected in March by a federal judge.
They were afraid of a fair trial.
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