Dallas

Jury Deliberates on 2 Men Accused in Cartel Leader's Killing

A jury has begun deliberations in the case of two men accused of plotting to kill a lawyer in North Texas who was acting head of a Mexican drug cartel.

The jury deliberated for about two hours Thursday in the federal trial of Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda and Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes. Jurors will resume deliberations on Friday.

The two are charged with interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder for hire in the 2013 shooting death of Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa in Southlake. Law enforcement officials say the men used video cameras and a GPS device to track Chapa before he was gunned down in a shopping center parking lot.

Prosecutors said the men tracked Chapa on the orders of a Beltran Leyva cartel member known as El Gato.

The gunman who killed Chapa hasn't been captured.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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