14-year-old U.S.-born boy found guilty of beheading four people in Mexico

[News_Editor]

14-year-old U.S.-born boy found guilty of beheading four people in Mexico

2011-07-27 10:59:51 GMT+7 (ICT)

CUERNAVACA, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) -- A U.S.-born teenager, 14-year-old Edgar Jimenez, was found guilty in a Mexican juvenile court on Tuesday on charges of torturing and beheading at least four people and kidnapping three others, officials said.

Jimenez, who is known as "El Ponchis", was arrested in December 2010 as he intended to board a plane at an airport in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, en route to Tijuana. The teen was reportedly going to try to see his mother who lives in San Diego.

The minor hitman was detained at the airport alongside two of his sisters, one of them Elizabeth, 19, who is also believed to be part of the South Pacific cartel. He was later charged with charges in relation to organized crime, murder, carrying a weapon for exclusive use of the army, kidnapping and possession of marijuana and cocaine.

Jimenez, when questioned, admitted that he was responsible for beheading at least four individuals who were later hung from a bridge in Cuernavaca, Morelos, but claimed he had been forced into the organization under death threats.

At the end of the trial, Jimenez was found guilty and sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison, the maximum penalty for a minor according to Mexican law. As he is a minor, his trial in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca was closed to the public.

The spokesman for the juvenile court, Juan Carlos Castro, stated that the sentence against Jimenez would begin to run from the day of his detention, which is December 2, 2010, and will end in December 2013. Some have responded with anger that Jimenez could not receive a longer jail sentence.

But Castro also said that a new hearing is necessary to determine if Jimenez has to pay a fine of 4.5 million Mexican pesos ($388,000) to compensate damages to the families of the victims, as it has been requested by District Attorney José Manuel Serrano.

Jimenez was inducted in the South Pacific cartel approximately 2.5 years ago, when he was just 12. Despite claiming that he did not know what he was doing, Jimenez posted photographs on the Internet, posing with assault weapons, narcotics and beheaded people.

Jimenez is not the only minor in Mexico allegedly involved in drug cartels. District Attorney Serrano said that to date 12 teenagers were confirmed to be involved with organized crime and only four to five cases are yet to be solved. At the moment, they are being held at the Center for Implementation of Measures for Adolescents.

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