No Ballistics Match in Ramos & Compean Case

Source: WND

Ballistics reports, used in the trial of Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, one of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting fleeing drug dealer Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, do not support the prosecution's claim the bullet was fired from Ramos' gun, according to documents provided to WND from Andy Ramirez, Chairman of the Friends of the Border Patrol.

Despite the conclusion of a laboratory criminalist that he could not conclusively link the bullet removed from Aldrete-Davila with Ramos' service weapon, a Department of Homeland Security agent swore, in an affidavit of complaint filed against Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, that Aldrete-Davila was hit by a round fired by Ramos.

Something is rotten in the state of Texas, and his name is Johnny Sutton.

"Johnny Sutton and his assistants are guilty of malicious prosecution," Ramirez charged to WND. "The prosecutors lied to the jury and he twisted evidence to make it fit his case. And when he couldn't twist the evidence, the government demanded that the court seal evidence which would have been exculpatory to the defense."

We previously reported that, in September of last year, the Department of Homeland Security made some serious allegations against Ramos & Compean. They promised documentation backing them up to four U.S. congressman -- documentation they have never produced.

In an affidavit filed by DHS on March 15, 2005, with the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas, special agent Christopher R. Sanchez swore the following:

Ballistics testing confirms a government-issued weapon belonging to U.S. Border Patrol Agent Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, a 96D Beretta .40 caliber automatic pistol, serial number BER067069M, fired a bullet (a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson jacketed hollow point) which hit the victim in the left buttocks while he was attempting to flee to Mexico.

The second document, a ballistics report completed by the Texas Department of Public Safety, interests Ramirez both because of the agency that did the testing and the results of the test.

"For some unexplained reason, U.S. Attorney Sutton had the ballistics test performed by the Texas Department of Public Safety in El Paso, rather than by the FBI," he said. "This was a federal issue that should have gone to the FBI and only to the FBI. The Texas Department of Public Safety had no business running a ballistics report on a federal case. The FBI handles all shooting incidents, whether it involves assaults or otherwise, concerning federal agents. DPS should have refused the case and demanded that the bullet be picked up by the FBI for analysis.

Ramirez points out several glaring questions that should have been answered long ago -- and certainly before the end of the trial. Why was the bullet tested by a state agency rather than the FBI? Why did Sanchez swear that the bullet was fired by Ramos with no ballistics evidence to back it up? WND also questions why, after receiving U.S. medical treatment, Davila was released into the personal custody of -- you guessed it -- Christopher Sanchez, and WND has been unable to find out the chain of events after he was released from the hospital.

Too many questions, too few answers, and two too many Border Patrol agents serving time in federal prison.

Technorati Tags
Illegal Immigration * Illegal Alien * Ignacio Ramos * Jose Alonso Compean * Johnny Sutton * Something Rotten * Andy Ramirez