Thread: Mexican teen hit man gets life in killings

Mexican teen gets life in killings
In taped conversation, hit man bragged about toast with blood
By JASON BUCH LAREDO MORNING TIMES
March 5, 2009, 6:27PM


A judge said she was sure that Gabriel Cardona would kill again if he were ever released.

A federal judge sentenced a Gulf Cartel hit man to life in prison on Thursday for the murders of two American teenagers who were abducted from a Nuevo Laredo nightclub, tortured, killed and then incinerated.

Gabriel Cardona, a 22-year-old who has pleaded guilty to seven murders committed in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, expressed no remorse during his sentencing before U.S. District Court Judge Michela Alvarez in Laredo federal court.

The American-born high school dropout is already serving an 80-year sentence for five state murder charges. He pleaded guilty in August to a federal charge of conspiracy to kidnap and kill in a foreign country, admitting to the 2006 murders of 14-year-old Inez Abundo Villarreal and 19-year-old Jorge Alfonso Aviles in Nuevo Laredo.

In a telephone conversation with another hit man intercepted by federal agents, Cardona bragged about how he slashed the two teenagers with a broken bottle, gathered their blood in a cup and made a toast to the Santisima Muerte, or death saint, in the spring of 2006.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Angel Moreno said during Thursday’s sentencing hearing that Cardona led a squad of hit men working for a faction of the Gulf Cartel known as the Zetas. He was the point-man for a crew of teenage sicarios, or hit men, operating in the U.S. in 2005 and 2006 coordinating kills on both sides of the border on the orders of Gulf Cartel leaders in Nuevo Laredo, authorities said.

Maria Villarreal, Inez Villarreal’s mother, spoke during the hearing, pleading with Alvarez to ask Cardona where she could find her son’s remains, which court records say were burned with liquid fuel in a barrel, a method known as a guiso, or stew.

“I know the pain your mother is going through, but the stronger sorrow is mine because she knows where you are,â€

and why is this guy not facing the death penalty?

W

William wrote:

and why is this guy not facing the death penalty?

W

Good question. I do believe Texas has the death penalty.

Yea...and this guy is an American citizen (probably an anchor baby) which means we do not have to worry about offending mexico if we were to seek the death penalty, as is usually the case when one of their illegal invaders murders our citizens!

I wonder if this guy arrested in mexico and as a condition of his extradition, we had to promise mexico we would not seek the death penalty, as is usually the case when some murder seeks refuge in mexico!

Same question....Why not the death penalty?

someone on the chron website who replied to the story said something about a plea on this case so that he would not get the death penalty, dont know how true this is, but maybe a phone call to the judges chambers might clear things up

maybe the judge and jury thought this didnt merit the death penalty??
who knows.

US Attorney for the SOUTHERN district of Texas
713-567.9000

Originally Posted by MW

William wrote:

and why is this guy not facing the death penalty?
W

Good question. I do believe Texas has the death penalty.

Just got off the phone and was told this.........
THE US ATTORNEY on behalf of the government was the person who DID NOT go after the death penalty