Accused stalker of Southlake cartel lawyer testifies against father, uncle
The cartel boss who spent almost $1 million to track attorney Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa to Southlake and to have him killed celebrated the hit with boxes of Michelob beer and a hunting trip.
Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, one of three defendants accused of tracking Guerrero, testified for nearly four hours in federal court Thursday, revealing more details about the conspiracy to kill the cartel lawyer at Southlake Town Square in 2013.
Before this week’s trial began, Ledezma-Campano, 32, pleaded guilty to a charge of interstate stalking resulting in death and agreed to testify against his father, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, 59, and his uncle, Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, 59.
The three men were indicted in 2014 on charges of interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
Ledezma-Campano took the stand wearing an orange jumpsuit and orange shoes. At times during his testimony, both he and his father cried, and Cepeda-Cortes shook his head.
“I was involved in this crime … the murder of a person,” Ledezma-Campano said.
He said he joined the search for Guerrero late in 2012, helping his father and uncle locate and follow the cartel lawyer through family members and with GPS trackers.
When the men found Guerrero, they took photos of his home with a camouflaged surveillance camera and followed him as he ran errands.
The men tracked Guerrero, Ledezma-Campano said, for Rodolofo Villareal Hernandez, a Beltran Lleyva cartel “plaza boss” known as El Gato.
Earlier witnesses said El Gato wanted to kill Guerrero because he thought he was responsible for the death of his father.
Ledezma-Campano testified that his father, Ledezma-Cepeda, was hired by El Gato to find Guerrero.
Monterrey ties
Ledezma-Cepeda was close to the leader of Beltran Lleyva, his son said, and had been involved with El Gato in the Grupo Rudo, or Rude Group, which worked with Beltran Lleyva and law enforcement near Monterrey.
When Mexican Marines arrested one of the Grupo Rudo members, El Gato enlisted Ledezma-Cepeda, a private investigator, and Ledezma-Campano, a former police trainee, to track the “snitch.”
Ledezma-Campano said he set up a GPS tracker to put on the man’s car.
“They followed him, and they killed him,” Ledezma-Campano said.
After that, Ledezma-Campano said, he “didn’t want anything to do” with tracking someone El Gato wanted to kill.
He said he first heard about the search for Guerrero in 2012 after he delivered diabetes medicine to his father in South Florida.
Ledezma-Campano arrived to find his father, Cepeda-Cortes, Cepeda-Cortes’ son and a man from Mexico named Pelón working out of a virtually empty two-story house near West Palm Beach.
Ledezma-Cepeda told his son they were looking for a lawyer who owed El Gato money. Ledezma-Campano said he asked if El Gato planned to kill the lawyer.
“He said, ‘No, he owes a lot of money,’” Ledezma-Campano said.
Ledezma-Campano agreed to help.
‘They killed him!’
The men soon moved their base of operations to Grapevine, where Cepeda-Cortes found out the address of Guerrero’s sister-in-law, Ledezma-Campano said.
A GPS tracker on her car led them to Guerrero’s gated neighborhood.
As they followed Guerrero, the men bought two different Jeep vehicles and rented several cars, Ledezma-Campano said. They slapped magnet decals for a fake electric company to some of the vehicles, and even followed Guerrero to a casino in Oklahoma.
On the day of Guerrero’s death, Ledezma-Campano said, he was anxious and sweating, texting El Gato through a Blackberry Messenger every three minutes.
They tracked Guerrero to his son’s school and later to Town Square, watching him from a rented Chevy Cruise.
As they watched Guerrero at Town Square, Ledezma-Cepeda was nervous “more than ever,” Ledezma-Campano said.
He sent Ledezma-Campano for coffee. Waiting in line, he heard and a commotion and returned to the rental car.
“They killed him! They killed him!” Ledezma-Cepeda told him.
The two men rushed to a 7-11 gas station and then dropped off the rental car. They went to their apartment and packed up their belongings. The next day, they went south.
El Gato celebrates
El Gato wanted to celebrate the killing.
Ledezma-Cepeda called his son, who was still in Texas, and told him to bring home as many beers as border officers would allow.
El Gato later hosted a months-long hunting trip and bought Ledezma-Cepeda a BMW, the son said.
“He said thanks, and now his dad can rest in peace,” Ledezma-Campano said.
But Ledezma-Campano said he should have known better than to get involved. El Gato’s targets, he said, either get kidnapped and tortured or killed.
He told jurors he chose to testify, “Because it is the right thing to do … according to my morals and values that my mom taught me.”
Defense attorneys, who indicated this week that El Gato forced Ledezma-Cepeda to track Guerrero, will continue cross-examination of Ledezma-Campano on Friday.
Ryan Osborne: 817-390-7684, @RyanOsborneFWST
This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Accused stalker of Southlake cartel lawyer testifies against father, uncle."