The jury in the trial for drug trafficking against the Mexican Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman withdrew on Monday to deliberate after listening for three and a half hours the judge’s instructions in a federal court in New York, where the acting attorney general was present , Matthew Whitaker.
Also present was the federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, where the trial is held, Richard P. Donoghue.
Donoghue congratulated the team of prosecutors in New York, in charge of the prosecutor Andrea Goldbarg, of Argentine origin, whose hand he shook as well as that of the prosecutor of the South Florida district, Adam Fels, where the Mexican has also been accused of drug trafficking.
Fels was in charge of presenting the case during the beginning of the trial last November.
Judge Brian Cogan reviewed one by one the ten charges against Guzmán Loera, the legal definitions of some terms such as conspiracy, circumstantial and direct evidence, and made clear to the seven women and five men of the jury that when evaluating the case they should start from the The premise that the accused is initially innocent and that in order to reach a conclusion unanimously afterwards, he must do so “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
“Your job is to reach a fair conclusion based on the evidence,” Cogan told the jury, whose names, place of work and residence have not been disclosed as part of the strict security measures that have surrounded this case.
The six substitute juries will remain in another room of the court while the deliberations are held in the most important case of drug trafficking, and the most mediatic, which has been held in this country.
The jury instructions were delayed for an hour because Judge Cogan wanted to know if they had been exposed to press coverage of this case over the weekend, without explaining what he was referring to, although he made it clear that he trusted them.
On Saturday, a document that had remained sealed during the judicial process was published, which states that according to a cooperating witness, the defendant had sexual relations with children under thirteen years old, whom he previously drugged.
According to the document, the prosecution did not use this information as evidence during the trial because it did not trust the credibility of the witness in this matter. The defendant denied the information through his lawyers.
The jury will evaluate the evidence of testimonies, photos, recordings, text messages and expert analysis, presented during three months of the trial, which began last November, and which faces the defendant to a possible life imprisonment in a maximum security prison, which would put an end to a criminal career of 25 years.
Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel, went to the Brooklyn court this Monday to continue the process, in which the defendant could be seen smiling and relaxed. (EFEUSA) .-
