Two accused in Mexican cartel lawyer slaying on trial in Texas
By Marice Richter
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - Two men accused of tracking an alleged high-level member of a Mexican drug cartel for two years to help set up his ambush slaying in Texas in 2013, go on trial on Monday afternoon in U.S. federal court in Fort Worth.
Testimony at the trial is expected to show how brutal feuds between Mexican drug cartels leak over the border into the United States.
Jesus Ledezma, 59, and his cousin Jose Cepeda, 60, are charged with interstate stalking, and aiding and abetting in the death of Juan Guerrero, 43, at an upscale shopping center in Southlake, a suburb of Fort Worth, near where he lived.
The two face up to life in prison if found guilty.
Ledezma's son, also named Jesus, 32, has pleaded guilty to the same charges in the case.
It is not clear whether the Ledezmas or Cepeda, all of whom are Mexican citizens, were on the site of the killing, though court documents show they may have been nearby. The assassin and getaway driver remain at-large, according to law enforcement officials.
Guerrero, a lawyer, was allegedly the personal attorney of Osiel Cardenas, former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas.
Cardenas was arrested in Mexico in 2003 during a shootout between the Mexican military and the Gulf Cartel and was extradited to the United States in 2007. He reached a plea deal with the U.S. government on multiple charges and in 2010 was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
Guerrero allegedly ran the cartel's operations following the conviction of Cardenas, according to an investigation by The Dallas Morning News. He was also an informant for the U.S. federal government, according to the same report.
Ledezma and Cepeda tracked Guerrero for two years both in Mexico and the United States preparing a hit, prosecutors say.
The two men are accused of placing surveillance cameras in Guerrero's neighborhood of million-dollar homes and of putting tracking devices on vehicles owned by him and his relatives, according to court documents.
Guerrero was shot multiple times with a 9mm pistol while he sat in a Range Rover parked in Southlake Town Square on May 22, 2013.
Video surveillance from the shopping center showed a Toyota Sequoia pull up behind the Range Rover, and someone then exit the vehicle and walk toward the passenger side of the Range Rover, where Guerrero was seated.
(Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Leslie Adler)