Mexico Court Voids Acquittal of 2 in U.S. Reporter’s Death
MEXICO CITY — An appeals court in the western Mexican state of Jalisco on Thursday overturned the acquittal of two Huichol Indians in the 1998 killing of U.S. journalist Philip True and sentenced them to 13 years in prison, the minimum for intentional homicide.
The unanimous ruling by the three-judge Jalisco State Superior Tribunal followed years of struggle by True’s widow, Martha, and his employer, the San Antonio Express-News.
True, 50, disappeared in December 1998 during a hike through a mountain range of the Huichol indigenous group. His body was later found in a shallow grave.
Juan Chivarra and Miguel Hernandez, two Huichol Indians found to be in possession of the journalist’s camera and backpack, initially admitted killing True but later retracted their confession. They have not yet been rearrested.
Defense lawyers had claimed that True might have died in a drunken fall.
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