Lawyer for Suspect in Juarez Murder Case Dies in Police Chase
by Greg Bloom
Frontera NorteSur
Mario César Escobedo Anaya, the defense lawyer for Gustavo González Meza, one of two men accused of murdering eleven women in Ciudad Juárez, was killed in a police chase on Tuesday, February 5, 2002.
State police said they chased Escobedo Anaya because they mistook him for Francisco Estrada, who allegedly murdered a state police officer. Curiously, Escobedo Anaya was also the defense lawyer for Estrada's mother who was arrested for allegedly helping her son escape arrest on the murder charge.
Discrepancies
State police blame Escobedo Anaya for his death because he did not pull over when pursued by them. However, the two police vehicles involved in the chase were unmarked and Escobedo Anaya's passenger told the Cd. Juárez press that he did not know the men chasing them were police until they got out of their vehicles.
There are other discrepancies in the case as well. While the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office stated in a press release that Escobedo Anaya died because of brain damage resulting from an auto accident that occurred while he was fleeing state police officers, the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario reports that Escobedo Anaya's autopsy states he died from a bullet wound to the head.
State police told El Diario that they only opened fire on Escobedo Anaya because he shot at them first. They also say that chemical tests on Escobedo Anaya's body show that he did fire a gun. There were at least 10 bullet holes in Escobedo Anaya's vehicle.
However, accident-scene pictures taken by a photographer from the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Norte show an unmarked Jeep Grand Cherokee that was driven by a state police agent. At the scene, the Jeep showed no bullet holes. A few hours later, an El Norte photographer took a picture of the same Jeep outside the Attorney General's Office. This time it shows a bullet hole in the hood of the Jeep. El Norte contends that state police agents shot the Jeep themselves to strengthen their case against Escobedo Anaya.
El Norte also reported that the Jeep is not registered as an official state vehicle but is rather the private vehicle of Commander Roberto Alejandro Castro Valles.
Escobedo Anaya took up the defense of González along with his father, Mario Escobedo Salazar, who is also a Cd. Juárez defense lawyer. Escobedo Salazar said that his son had received various death threats for his involvement in the case. He also stated that they had considered dropping González as a client so as not to put their lives at risk.
Coup de grace?
A few days after the above mentioned questions about Escobedo Anaya's death arose, his father said that he found a witness to the incident that would testify that one of the agents involved in the chase got out of a car and then shot his son, or shot at his son, after the crash.
Later, on February 19, Escobedo Salazar, an evidence expert and other lawyers took another look at the vehicle Escobedo Anaya was driving during the chase. Apparent to the entire group was that some of the shots could only have hit the truck after it had crashed when certain parts of the wrecked vehicle became exposed.
Agents involved in the pursuit have been suspended with pay while they are under investigation.
Escobedo Anaya was married for 12 years at the time of his death and was the father of two girls, ages 7 and 10.
Copyright 2002 El Norte | found at Frontera NotreSur