Widow Takes Stand In Horizon City Drug Dealer Kidnapping Trial

The widow of an alleged drug dealer took the stand Tuesday in the federal trial of two men accused of abducting him in Horizon City in 2009.

Sergio Saucedo later turned up dead with his hands cut off and placed on his chest on a Juarez, Mexico, street.

The kidnapping took place in broad daylight, and Saucedo’s widow, Maria Longoria, who took the stand Tuesday morning, was with her husband when it happened. And much of it took place in front of neighbors and a school bus full of children. But only the school bus driver, Olga Martinez, identified either of the two defendants in a long second day of testimony in the much-anticipated kidnapping trial of Cesar Obregon and Rafael Vega.

Although the widow was able to describe what happened in great detail, she told the court under oath that she could not identify either of the men on trial for her husband’s kidnapping. Despite being bound by duct tape by the men, like her husband, and delivering a blow-by-blow account of the brazen afternoon abduction, Longoria said she simply did not get a good look at the men.

Martinez, however, who had 10 to 15 children on her Clint Independent School District bus when she noticed the commotion in front of Saucedo’s home, positively identified Obregon in the courtroom as one of three men she saw taking Saucedo from his home on Sept. 3, 2009. The kidnapping happened because Saucedo had a 700-pound load of marijuana seized at a checkpoint, officials alleged.

Longoria’s detailed and almost emotionless account of the kidnapping had everyone in the courtroom on the edge of their seats. She testified that when she returned home with her husband and two children around 2:30 p.m., three men wearing black baseball caps, T-shirts and shoes were waiting for them inside. They put the children in a bedroom then duct-taped her and her husband’s mouths, hands and feet.

“One of the guys made a phone call and said, ‘Nero, we have him.’ Then he said it again, but the second time he sounded a little upset and said, ‘Nero, we have him!’ Then they stood Sergio up and took him “outside,” Longoria said during her testimony.

Longoria told the jury she was aware her husband was a drug dealer. She was also aware that he had issues with others.

“Sergio was having a problem with a guy named Jose Cordero and he told me about it the night before,” Longoria said. “He also had some other problems with other people, so he was also worried about that.”

Obregon’s defense attorney, Richard Esper, tried to poke holes in the bus driver’s testimony. But Martinez insisted she did see Obregon in front of the home, as she told two children getting off the bus to get back on and drove away.

Other witnesses who testified Tuesday included several neighbors, none of whom could identify Saucedo’s kidnappers.

Saucedo’s cousin, Joe Saucedo, from southeast New Mexico, also testified. He admitted he brought his cousin a gun because he was worried that someone was going to hurt him.

The trial continues Wednesday in Judge David Briones court.