Army Spc. Richard Raymond Medina Torres, the soldier who mistakenly drove into Mexico with a car full of personal weapons on April 21, has now spent more than three weeks in a Mexican prison, and his lawyer told the El Paso Times that he submitted an appeal last week.

David Rey Arceo Maldonado told the Times the appeal is now in the hands of an appeals defense lawyer, Robert Rivera, who told the Times the appellate process in Mexico usually takes about a month.

Asked how much longer Medina Torres might have to remain at the Cereso prison in Ciudad Juarez, Rivera told the Times: "The only one that knows is the judge."

Meanwhile, a California resident named George Alesna has set up a Web site calling for the release of Medina Torres, according to television station KSEE 24 in Fresno, the soldier's home town.

The Web site -- www.releaserichard.com -- links to news stories on the soldier's plight and calls on American citizens to petition U.S. government officials to secure the release of the Iraq war veteran.

You can even download a flyer (pdf) to pass around in communities, college campuses and at military bases "if allowed," Alesna says on his Web site.

9:55am 5/9/08 -- Mexican Jail 'Not As Bad As the Movies...': GI who blundered into Mexico with guns tells the AP he just wants to go home.

Army Spc. Richard Raymond Medina Torres, the 25-year-old Iraq war veteran who inadvertently crossed into Mexico with a small arsenal of personal weapons back on April 21, is still waiting for a Mexican judge to decide whether he's telling the truth, The Associated Press reported.

"I want to go home. I just want to go," Medina Torres told the AP last week from the Mexican prison in Ciudad Juarez where he has been held since late April.

Medina Torres told a reporter that he sleeps on a thin mat on the floor of his cell, which has a bathroom and shower and is occupied by four other inmates.

The Fresno, Calif. native, who does not speak Spanish, said he has managed to win over his cellmates, who have assured him of protection in the violence-plagued Cereso de Juarez, and have offered him food from their visitors, and one even loaned him a clean shirt, the AP reported.

"It's not as bad as the movies make it out to be," Medina Torres said of the Mexican prison.

Torres told the AP that he relies on the U.S. Consulate to bring him money from his wallet for phone calls or for extra food, but that money is rapidly running out. 

Army Spc. Richard Raymond Medina Torres, who says he took a wrong turn into Mexico while carrying some of his own weapons, almost certainly won't be able to begin his new assignment as a helicopter mechanic in Honduras, the El Paso Times reported.

That assignment is scheduled to begin Thursday, but his Mexican attorney, David Rey Arceo Maldonado, said his appeal of a Mexican judge's ruling that Medina Torres must stand trial could take weeks, the Times said.

The 25-year-old soldier was traveling from Fort Hood, Texas, where he was with the 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, en route to visit his mother in Fresno, Calif., when he planned to stop in El Paso, park his car on the U.S. side and walk into Ciudad Juarez for breakfast, the paper reported.

He found no parking, missed two turnarounds and found himself across the Bridge of the Americas in Mexican custody -- along with his semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, a .45-caliber handgun, ammunition and several knives, according to the Times.

Now he is being held in a Mexican prison, charged on Saturday with weapons importation, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and possession of weapons and ammunition reserved for the Mexican military, which could net up to six years in prison, the Mexican attorney general's office told the Times.

Officials with the U.S. Consulate in Juarez told the Times that over the past two years, 12 U.S. citizens have found themselves in the same situation, charged with weapons possession, but that in the other cases, the U.S. gun owners had been allowed to go home within a few days.

Driving into Mexico on the Bridge of the Americas is particularly easy to do, because the entrance is right off the Interstate 10 exit ramp and there are no toll booths to stop traffic, consular officials said.

But there are several "no weapons" signs plainly visible to drivers, the Times reported.

What is complicating the soldier's case is that the AR-15, which Medina Torres said he used in Iraq, is a weapon reserved for the military in Mexico and is a weapon especially prized by drug traffickers for its easy conversion to automatic operation, the Times reported.

But the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has told the Times they found no evidence that Medina Torres intended to sell his weapons.

Congressmen representing Fresno, where Medina Torres was born and raised, told the Times they are closely tracking the case through the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Consulate in Juarez.

8:30am 4/28/08 -- Jailed GI's Spirits Good: Mexican magistrate may decide today whether to try or release errant soldier.

The case of a Fort Hood soldier who was on his way home to California before he took a wrong turn into Mexico -- along with his assault rifle, handgun and ammunition, all illegal south of the border -- could be resolved today, the El Paso Times reported.

According to the Times, one of the three charges facing Army Spc. Richard Raymond Medina Torres -- possession of a military-style weapon -- had been dropped over the weekend. 

The soldier's mother, Gloria Medina of Fresno, Calif., was finally able to see her son on Sunday at the Cereso prison in Juarez, where he could be facing many years in prison, the Times reported.

"I was able to visit with him for a couple of hours," Gloria Medina told the Times. "He looks good, but he's getting thin."

Medina Torres has an Aztec-themed tattoo on his back as a tribute to his heritage, and such tattoos are common among members of the Barrio Azteca gang who are among the most dangerous and violent inmates at the Cereso prison, the Times reported.

But Medina Torres' mother said the prison director assured her that everything is being done to keep her son safe and separated from violent prisoners, the paper said.

"He doesn't like where he is, but he's optimistic," Medina told the Times. "We're hopeful that things will go well this week. But we know that things have to go at the Mexican government's pace and according to protocol."

Medina also said she was told that the U.S. Consulate and the Mexican magistrate's office were expected to meet today to determine whether her son would be released, the Times reported.

5:40am 4/24/08 -- Jailed GI Faces Mexican Charges: Soldier who took wrong turn into Juarez could get up to 30 years for arms smuggling.

Army Spc. Richard Raymond Medina Torres, an Iraq war veteran and a helicopter mechanic on leave from Fort Hood who took a wrong turn into Mexico on Monday, was formally charged Wednesday and transferred to a Mexican prison, the El Paso Times reported.

The soldier told the Times this week he was en route to his home in Fresno, Calif., when he tried to park on the U.S. side of the border and walk into Ciudad Juarez for breakfast, but got lost and drove his car into Mexico -- along with an AR-15 assault rifle, a .45-caliber pistol, ammunition and some knives, which he said were his personal weapons. 

Medina Torres was charged Wednesday with smuggling, weapons importation and possession of ammunition reserved for the military, said Angel Torres, spokesman for the Mexican attorney general's office.

He is facing five to 30 years in prison on the smuggling charge, three to 10 years for weapons importation and two to six years in prison for the ammunition charge, according to the Times.

U.S. officials said a background check on Medina Torres and the weapons he accidentally carried past a Mexican border checkpoint showed no criminal history or indication of weapons trafficking, the Times reported.

His case is now in the hands of a Mexican federal judge who had 72 hours from noon Wednesday to decide whether to free him or sentence him to prison time, the attorney general's office told the Times.

6:25am 4/23/08 -- Jailed GI Wishes He Were Back in Iraq: Army helicopter mechanic tells how he made a wrong turn into Mexico.

Army Spc. Richard Raymond Medina Torres told the El Paso Times on Tuesday how he planned to park his car on the U.S. side of the border and walk into Juarez to have some breakfast Monday morning.

But he got lost, missing the signs warning travelers not to bring weapons into Mexico, and only realized he had crossed the border when he saw a sign welcoming him to Mexico, Medina Torres told the Times.

When he tried to make a U-turn about 50 feet south of the first Mexican checkpoint, an inspector asked him if he had any drugs or weapons, the Times reported.

He said he showed border inspectors his semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, a .45-caliber pistol, numerous rounds of ammunition and some knives, and he was immediately detained, Medina Torres told the Times.

"I'm still scared," the Chinook helicopter mechanic who recently finished a 15-month tour of Iraq told the Times. "I still don't know what's going on. I'm just trying to make it home."

Mexican officials said Tuesday night that he had not been charged with a crime, but under Mexico's strict weapons laws, he could face four to 15 years in prison for possession of the assault rifle alone, according to another Times report.

The U.S. State Department said, however, his sentence in Mexico could be as long as 30 years in prison, the Times reported.

Medina Torres, who was on his way from Fort Hood, Texas, to see his mother in Fresno, Calif., when he took a wrong turn into Mexico, doesn't speak Spanish and isn't sure what his legal options are, and he's not sure what his Mexican-appointed attorney, who doesn't speak English, is telling him.

He is scheduled to see a judge on Thursday or Friday, but may be moved to a Mexican prison before that, the Times reported.

Meanwhile, he told the Times, he is being treated well and is receiving meals, and after he spoke to reporters on Tuesday at the Mexican Attorney General's Office, one of his minders put his arm on Medina Torres' shoulder as he led him back to his cell.

Medina Torres told the Times of a five-minute phone call he had with his mother in California, saying, "I just told her to leave it up to God and everything will be OK."

5:25am 4/22/08 -- U.S. Soldier Jailed in Mexico: Fort Hood GI reportedly makes wrong turn into Juarez ... with his guns.

Army Spc. Richard Raymond Medina, a soldier on leave from Fort Hood who was driving to California to begin a new assignment, crossed the border into Juarez carrying several firearms and was arrested by Mexican authorities, the El Paso Times reported.

Medina, whose age and hometown were not available, apparently crossed into Mexico by mistake, but he now could face up to 15 years in a Mexican prison, the Times reported.

Law enforcement officers at Fort Bliss said Medina reportedly took the wrong lane and accidentally entered Mexico but as he tried to turn around he was stopped by Mexican authorities, Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt told the Times.

Channel 9-KTSM in El Paso reported that Medina had an AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun in his possession when he was arrested by agents of the Mexican attorney general's office, the Times reported.

Offutt told the Times that the weapons were Medina's personal firearms and there was no intent to sell them, according to the Times.

It wasn't known where Medina was taken by Mexican authorities, and U.S. consular officials in Juarez could not be reached for comment, the paper reported.

Under Mexican law, the possession of a military-style assault weapon is punishable by four to 15 years in prison, while possessing less powerful firearms could mean two to seven years in prison, the Times said.

This incident comes at the height of efforts by Mexican federal authorities and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to stop the flow of illegal firearms to warring drug cartels along the border, the Times reported.

"Mexico has very strict gun laws, so they (persons caught in Mexico) would be held to those standards," ATF Special Agent and spokesman Tom Crowley told the Times.

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