by Lucio R. Borderland Beat: Use the search bar to access outstanding posts written by Chivis and Havana on the Zetas Trial and Bribery Cases
Colorado: "I will win the appeal, there was no evidence against me.." turns out the court of appeals agrees with him
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| Pancho 2nd on left |
The decision of the
court of appeals gave Pancho Colorado the big win he said he was getting on his
appeal. He was the only of the convicted
defendants in the Zetas Cartel Horse Racing money laundering trial to win an
appeal.
The court of appeals
found the District Court in Austin abused its discretion when commingling jury instructions
with the other defendants, finding “the jury was improperly and harmfully
instructed”, and may not have found the defendant guilty had they not been
instructed in the manner identical to the other defendants.
Immediately following
is the recap of the findings in a nutshell, but below the text of this post is
a complete copy of the appeal and findings for all defendants. The appeal has a good overview of trial
details and the appeals for Jose Trevino, Huitron and Garcia Solis.
These findings are for
the money laundering case, the guilty conviction for the bribery attempt
stands. Pancho, his son and business
partner all plead guilty to bribing the Federal Court judge in the money laundering
case, offering 1 million dollars in exchange for a light sentence.
I am sure he is kicking
himself over that move, after winning his appeal.
Following the arrests
in the bribery case, Pancho was distraught that his son would be incarcerated
for an extended time. He offered a deal in
open court, that in hindsight the court could be ruminating over, Pancho
offered;
“Let my son go, and I will not appeal”
Pancho
Was sentenced to 5 years in Bribery Case
In February of this
year, Pancho was given 5 years the maximum sentence in the bribery case. It was to run consecutively to
the money laundering sentence of 20 years.
If the appeal sticks, with time served and good behavior he could soon
walk out and deported back to Mexico. He
was arrested in the money laundering case in 2012 and has been in prison since
his arrest. However, it is not certain
that a man who conspired behind bars to bribe a judge would qualify for “good
behavior”, then again the U.S. has presented some softball judgments and deals
when dealing with cartels.
Pancho’s son and
business partner already served a very short sentence and were deported to
Mexico. Once there, they immediately claimed
their innocence, and slammed the U.S. for its corruption in the courts.
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| With trophy, conviction stands for Jose Treviño brother of Z40 and 42 |
Findings
of the court:
The government
repeatedly argued that, because Colorado purchased horses with funds from his
company, ADT, and ADT was started with drug money in 2003 and 2004, Colorado
therefore knowingly purchased horses in furtherance of the money-laundering
conspiracy.
