El Pasoan In Juarez Jail Loses Appeal

An El Pasoan jailed in Juarez lost his final appeal. A federal judge in Mexico denied the request to have Shohn Huckabee’s conviction overturned.

Huckabee is serving a 5-year sentence on drug charges along with a coworker.

Mexican soldiers said they found 110 pounds of marijuana in the El Paso man’s truck while he was visiting Juarez in late December 2009.

Huckabee maintains he’s innocent and said he was tortured by the military.

In an interview behind bars in April, he said he’d appeal rather than serve out his sentence in the U.S.

“I don’t want the record,” he said, “it affects the rest of my life. I like to hunt. I like to fish. You can’t own a gun if you have a felony record. I can’t get a lot of the clearance for the federal jobs,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee’s parents said he now will likely seek a transfer to a U.S. prison, and they may take his case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Story by Angela Kocherga, BELO Border Bureau