Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008

Judge rules Beltran-Moreno's reputed confession is OK at trial

A jury next year will hear an accused kidnapper's reputed confession.

Circuit Judge Janette Dunnigan on Friday denied a motion to suppress statements Vincente Beltran-Moreno. 24, gave to an FBI agent during a series of telephone and face-to-face conversations in February and March 2007.

Authorities say Beltran-Moreno, who is charged with armed kidnapping, abducted then 13-year-old Clay Moore from a bus stop at gunpoint in a plot to extort a ransom, drove him to a remote East Manatee farm and used duct tape to bound him to a tree Feb. 23, 2007.

Moore freed himself with a safety pin two hours later and was not seriously injured.

Beltran-Moreno then fled to Mexico, authorities said.

His girlfriend, Ana Pureco Tinoco, who is charged as an accessory in the kidnapping, helped authorities reach Beltran-Moreno in Mexico by telephone on Feb. 27, 2007.

Dunnigan made her decision after reviewing voluminous DVDs and transcripts of Beltran-Moreno's conversations with law enforcement, including FBI Agent Leo Martinez.

Her ruling stemmed from a motion filed by Beltran-Moreno's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Matthew Gish.

Gish wanted to prevent prosecutors from using the calls between Martinez and his clientin Mexico. He said incriminating statements Beltran-Moreno made were not voluntary because he was unlawfully promised money and leniency for cooperating. He also contended that law enforcement coerced his client to confess.

The FBI's Martinez, Gish argued, indirectly threatened Beltran-Moreno during the conversations, by saying jail conditions in Mexico were poor, and that Beltran-Moreno could get better treatment in a U.S. prison if he cooperated.

Dunnigan disagreed.

"This court finds that the conduct of law enforcement was not coercive, and that it did not induce him to confess," Dunnigan wrote in her 15-page ruling. "Any promise of benefit or reward ... is clearly directed to the issue of the defendant's return to the United States, either by surrender or by capture in conjunction with Mexican authorities and extradition."

Beltran-Moreno is set to go to trial in January. He faces life in prison if convicted of armed kidnapping.