14-YEAR-OLD GETS 3 YEARS FOR 4 BEHEADINGS

From Borderland Beat:

PONCHIS TEEN SICARIO CONVICTED OF 4 BEHEADINGS MAY BE FREE IN DAYS
"I can no longer be shocked by the impunity of Mexico, sadly, only an event of justice could do that. Hold on to your seatbelts folks, the little darling is a US citizen and free to come and play anywhere, though his history is in the San Diego/Chula Vista area...." Paz, Buela Chivis

CNN Mexico
November 19, 2011

The youngest sicario known as “El Ponchis” was sentenced to three years in prison in the central state of Morelos, for beheading four men could go free in the coming days due to an appeal of his defense.

Following an analysis of the trial by the defense of children, several irregularities were found, so these tests were presented as well as videos of the trial with which the defense seeks to annul the sentence imposed four months ago, sources of the Unitary Tribunal of Justice for Adolescents (TUJA) told CNNMéxico.

The hearing of appeal is an extraordinary remedy that is meant to overturn a court decision, that might contain an incorrect interpretation of the law or a judication that has not followed a legal process.

This legal process is a right of the defendant, said Jose Manuel Serrano Salmeron, head of the prosecution for crimes against adolescents, however, he went on to say that the trial that found the child guilty was fair.

“As a prosecutor in this trial I can tell you that it was a fair trial, the judge listened to each and every one of the witnesses that allowed us to prove all that antisocial behavior in the indictment against him,” Serrano Salmeron said.

The youngest active sicario to date at aged 14, was arrested the night of December 2, 2010 by soldiers at the airport in Cuernavaca while in company of his two sisters. He was about to board a flight that was going to take him to the border city of Tijuana, where he was moving to San Diego, California to join his mother.

At his presentation, the teen said he agreed to work for the South Pacific Cartel (CPS) and said that his job was to behead people working for other cartels.

The hearing, in which all parties will be present, will take place next Tuesday at the Centre for the Execution of Custodial Measures for Adolescents, in Morelos, where he is currently being held, and presiding will be the judges of TUJA, Ana Perez Güemes and Ocampo Virinia that will determine if the sentence is either reduced or annulled or sustained.

After a trial lasting a week, on July 26 “El Ponchis” was sentenced to three years in prison for trafficking drug, possession of a firearm that are only pernitted by the military and violation of federal law against organized crime for committing kidnappings and homicides.