Jose Mota indicted for illegal re-entry by a deported alien

By Denise G. Callahan

Staff Writer

Thursday, June 07, 2007

A federal grand jury in Cincinnati indicted Jose Mota Wednesday on one count of illegal re-entry by a deported alien.

He is scheduled for his first court appearance before Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Black at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. He faces a possible 10-year prison term and a $250,000 fine. Immigration and Enforcement Officers took custody of Mota Wednesday, May 30.

Mota and his brother Humberto stood trial in Warren County Common Pleas Court in late May. Jose was found not guilty, but his brother was found guilty in last summer's slaying of a 27-year-old Mason man and Little Miami graduate Kevin Barnhill.

Mota had been in the Mason area for six or seven years working as a specialty roofer, said his court attorney, Chris Cornyn. Ironically, the day after the fight that ended Barnhill's life, Mota was planning to take a trip to Virginia Beach, Va., to check out a new job he'd been offered that would have paid him $18 to $19 per hour. He was pulling in $14 to $15 an hour here.

Cornyn said Mota was a hard-working man and he even served as Cornyn's interpreter with another of his Spanish-speaking criminal clients while both were at the Warren County jail.

Cornyn said he believes the jury believed the witnesses who testified that this Mota brother never ran to the rear area of the Mason Pub where Barnhill was killed.

"I never really believed Jose was directly involved in the murder of Kevin Barnhill," Cornyn said. "He was just trying to protect his brother."


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