ZAVALETTA'S CLAIMS FOUR YEARS AGO NOW RING TRUE

By Juan Montoya
There is one known convicted murderer loose somewhere in the Asian subcontinent who is free because of the corrupt judicial system in Cameron County.
That is Amit Livingston, the man who on September 30, 2005 killed 32-year-old teacher Hermila Hernandez and later buried her body in the sand dunes in the desolate reaches of the furthest access road in South Padre Island.

And closer to home, accused killer Pepe Villarreal is reportedly hiding out in northern Mexico after he somehow was allowed to leave the country after he had been charged with the murder of his son-in-law and an immigration hold put on him.

Already, one of the defendants in an Abel Limas corruption-related case, former Cameron District Attorney investigator Jaime Muñivez, has pled guilty to having accepted a new bicycle from Villarreal in Matamoros in exchange for information about law-enforcement efforts to prosecute him in the case. In other words, to get information from inside the enemy's house.

You remember Villarreal, he is accused of having shot his son-in-law at a convenience store at the corner of Houston Road and Minnesota Avenue across the street from the Ozanam Center (Casa Romero).Somehow or another (no one seems to know how), he managed to free himself from the law while in custody through a series of (deliberate?) mixups to the point whew it is alleged the officers transporting him back to jail from a court hearing were instructed to pull over to the side of the road and allow his wife, trialing in a car behind their unit, to whisk him away to to safety across the Rio Grande.

The federal government continues to pursue Villarreal's trail.

In the case of Livingston, voters were told way back in January 2008, by then DA candidate Peter Zavaletta in a campaign ad that money from the $500,000 cash bond placed by Livingston's parents had somehow found its way to the campaign coffers of Aramando Villalobos.

No one believed it back then. Mando was a rising star, albeit with some baggage with his close association with Limas who the then-judge appointed as his 404th court defender of choice. People were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and ascribed Zavaletta's claims to campaign rhetoric.

But just what was it that Zavaletta said back then?

Zavaletta asked in his ad "DID MONEY FROM AN ADMITTED MURDERER FIND ITS WAY TO THE CAMPAIGN ACCOUNT OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY?"

Zavaletta claimed that "based on sworn testimony and official documents, money from an admitted murderer who is still at large has found its way into the campaign account of District Attorney Armando Villalobos."

He then went on to state that "On February 13, 2007, with a jury waiting to be selected and empaneled, Amit Livingston pled guilty to the brutal murder on September 30, 2005 of 32 year old Hermila Hernandez. The offense carried a penalty range of no less than 5 years and no more than 99 years confinement in state penitentiary, or life, plus a fine of up to $10,000.

Under the plea agreement offered by the District Attorney, however, Livingston was to only serve 23 years in exchange for his guilty plea. Before reporting to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division to serve his sentence, however, Livingston was given 60 days to 'get his life straightened out.'”

Despite explaining that he ha objected in chambers to Limas' decision, Zavaletta claimed that the District Attorney did not publicly object or file an emergency appeal to stop the convicted murderer from walking out the courthouse doors.

Livingston had earlier deposited $500,000 in cash as a bond to secure his return.
"On April 18, 2007, Amit Livingston, an admitted killer, failed to surrender to authorities to begin his sentence. He had absconded."

Yesterday, in a 34-page indictment of Villalobos, federal prosecutors accused Villalobos of receiving two payments of $40,000 each from his former law partner in Dallas Eddie Lucio as part of his take from the splitting of the $500,000 cash bond after $300,000 was given to the family of the victim and the other $200,000 to Lucio for his prosecuting the civil suit.

Peter Zavaletta's warnings, after all, may not have been campaign rhetoric at all, but may have been merely pointing to the tip of the corruption iceberg rearing its ugly head from the judicial wing of the Cameron County Courthouse.