Federal prosecutor grills defendant about his fear of cartel boss

After hours of testimony Friday, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda acknowledged that he duped his co-defendant into finding and stalking the Southlake cartel lawyer killed in 2013.

Ledezma-Cepeda said he told Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, who is his cousin, that the lawyer, Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa, was a wealthy, white-collar criminal and an adulterer. Authorities in Mexico needed to find him, Ledezma-Cepeda said he told his cousin.

Federal prosecutor Joshua Burgess quickly fired back.

“You have every reason to lie at this point, don’t you?” Burgess asked Ledezma-Cepeda. “As a private investigator, you’re used to lying to get what you want — isn’t that true?”

Ledezma-Cepeda, 59, and Cepeda-Cortes, 59, are each charged with interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Witnesses have said the men used GPS trackers and surveillance cameras and rented multiple cars and residences to monitor Guerrero until he was fatally shot at Southlake’s Town Square in May 2013.

Ledezma-Cepeda’s son, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, was also charged in the case. He pleaded guilty to the stalking charge and testified against his family members last week.

The shooter and getaway driver in Guerrero’s death have not been arrested.

On Thursday, after the prosecution rested its case, Ledezma-Cepeda testified that El Gato, a Beltran Leyva “plaza boss,” forced him to find Guerrero. El Gato believed Guerrero was responsible for the death of his father.

Ledezma-Cepeda on Friday testified that Cepeda-Cortes believed he was helping him with a private investigation, not a vengeful manhunt.

Burgess questioned Ledezma-Cepeda about a meeting between the two defendants in December 2013, months after Guerrero’s death.

Burgess suggested the meeting was to concoct an alibi — that Ledezma-Cepeda would tell authorities Cepeda-Cortes, 59, was involved only as a translator.

“Well, that’s right,” Ledezma-Cepeda said through his translator. “I don’t speak the language.”

Ledezma-Cepeda said he met with his cousin when their family met in Mexico, but “there was nothing specific about an alibi.”

Burgess asked about other people Ledezma-Cepeda had tracked for El Gato, all of whom ended up dead or missing.

Ledezma-Cepeda responded with the same reasoning: El Gato would kill him if he didn’t comply with his orders.

“Is there any limit to the people you could kill? Could you ever escape the fear” of El Gato? Burgess said.

Burgess displayed a page from Ledezma-Cepeda’s notebook, a list of people who had been killed. Some of the names were crossed off. Burgess compared it with a grocery list.

“I was a tool for him,” Ledezma-Cepeda said.

‘Cold-blooded’

Burgess also brought up a text conversation between Ledezma-Cepeda and El Gato in 2014.

The discussion was about a man El Gato wanted to kill.

“Not even the NASA could do something now,” El Gato wrote.

Ledezma-Cepeda replied: “Ha Ha Ha … Paco was unaware … had a friend who was missing … messing with the wife of some heavyweight.”

Ledezma-Cepeda told Burgess he was trying to play into El Gato’s sense of humor.

“He has a sense of humor about killing people?” Burgess asked.

“He’s cold-blooded,” Ledezma-Cepeda said.

On Thursday, Ledezma-Cepeda testified that he couldn’t get off El Gato’s leash because he couldn’t move his family out of Mexico. He couldn’t sell his house, he said, because no one would buy it for a reasonable price.

Burgess returned to that testimony Friday.

“If the housing market in Mexico was stronger, would Mr. Chapa be alive today?” Burgess asked.

“I don’t know what to say,” Ledezma-Cepeda said.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Federal prosecutor grills defendant about his fear of cartel boss."