THE BATTALION Page 11
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1979
the state
exico lures U.S. gamblers Judge erred, court
rejects sentences
United Press International
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico —
gambling is spreading along
Mexico side of the border.
Officials predict that by next year,
exican book and lottery offices will
; operating across from nearly
'ery major American border city to
% cept bets on horse races, soccer,
idlAmerican professional football
idljaaseball.
For decades, pari-mutuel horse
tracks in Tijuana, across from
Diego, Calif., and in Ciudad
across the Rio Grande from
[aso, were the only Mexican ef-
s to attract American gambling
liars.
so, a horserace book has oper-
for years at the Turf Club in
—-—-qudad Juarez. Recently a lottery on
lexican professional soccer, called
BpGOL, was added and plans are
Berway to take lottery bets on
imenttoimerican major league baseball,
ROHIT, American professional
otball, PROTOUCH, and horse
Is, PRODERBY, according to
'emetrio Sotomayor Cuellar.
Sotomayor is the authorizing
^ent for one of seven Ciudad
larez soccer lotteries and operates
le business at the Turf Club. He
|licts that unless the Mexican
Bmment changes its plans, simi-
I fcetting in the next year will be
lig place all along the 1,933-mile
.S. Mexico border,
ig ma d f loof of the move to expanding
ilksonl iejico gambling within easy driv-
hat the ig distance of millions of Americans
)mmittedas the opening in September of a
* formii orserace book in Nuevo Laredo,
the 0[J e l* co ’ across fr° m Laredo where
ds of Texans are placing bets
, • r
tn
on horse races run at a dozen U.S.
tracks and the Mexico city track.
Officials of the Nuevo Laredo turf
club say they, too, will add lotteries
on Mexican soccer and American
baseball and football. They plan to
open branches in Matamoros,
Reynosa and Piedras Negras, across
the Rio Grande respectively from
the Texas border cities of
Brownsville, McAllen and Eagle
Pass.
Sotomayor said the Mexican soc
cer lottery, limited to Mexico City
when it began a year ago, now takes
bets in Ciudad Juarez, Mexicali and
Tijuana. The Mexican government
underestimated demand and many
applicants are having to wait for
their concessions because of a short
age of special lottery cash registers,
he said.
The sports lottery “is going to go
to all border cities,’ Sotomayor said.
Most of the betting parlors are
being strategically located within
walking distance of border crossings
for easy accessibility to betting
Americans.
Although a strike of referees in
Mexico’s major soccer league al
lowed betting only on second-
division Mexican teams and soccer
teams in Chile, Colombia, Argen
tina and Brazil until September,
Sotomayor said the sports lottery
still was successful the three previ
ous months.
“Nobody’s even heard of those
teams,” he said. “So they were just
guessing.’’
Nevertheless, he estimated about
1,500 bets ranging from the
minimum of 10 pesos (48 cents U.S.)
to as much as $570 U.S., were
^FROM BUSTIN’ ILLEG-Al
placed with his agency during that
period.
Sotomayor said persons playing
the sports lottery do so on a com
puter punch card, similar to those
used in voting, in which the out
comes of 13 games are predicted —
home team winning, visitors win
ning or a tie. The cost for the initial
punch is 48 cents.
A bettor can improve his odds by
punching additional holes on any
and all of the 13 games, but the cost
for each additional punch increases
in multiples of two.
A grand prize is offered for per
fect selection of all 13 soccer games
and it increases each week there is
no winner.
In the event there is more than
one winning card, the top prize will
be split among the winners, he said.
So far, no one in Ciudad Juarez
has won the grand prize, but some
have made 12 correct choices,
Sotomayor said. In all of Mexico,
three persons so far have posted
perfect choices and won about
$67,000 each, he said.
United Press International
AUSTIN — The Court of Crimi
nal Appeals has overturned two life
sentences given a Dallas woman for
shooting her husband and a cocktail
waitress, ruling the trial judge erred
in failing to instruct the jury it could
consider voluntary manslaughter
charges.
Trial testimony showed Nicolena
Medlock had gone to the private
club Feb. 6, 1975, to meet her son
and daughter-in-law. She was sitting
at a table with the club manager and
her daughter-in-law when her hus
band walked in and stood nearby,
staring at her.
Medlock approached his wife and
told her he didn’t want some money
she had left for him, and then re
treated. Thirty minutes later, Med
lock again approached his wife,
grabbed her by the neck and said,
“Let’s go. I’m going to get you.”
Mrs. Medlock pulled away and
grabbed a pistol from her purse and
began shooting. Two shots hit Med
lock and one bullet hit a waitress,
Yvett Harris, killing both of them.
The court ruled the issue of vol
untary manslaughter had been
raised and the trial judge should
have considered it, since Mrs. Med
lock had sufficient proof that she
feared her husband.
The court also Wednesday over
turned the capital murder convic
tion of a Waco man because the trial
judge erred in not scheduling a
hearing on the defendant’s motion
for a change of venue.
Charles Eugene O’Brient was
convicted for the Jan. 3, 1978,
strangulation death of Mamie Witt.
At a pretrial hearing on April 20,
1978, O’Brient filed a motion for a
change of venue, but the trial judge
elected to carry the motion along
pending jury selection. On May 30,
after the jury had been selected, the
judge overruled the change of
venue motion.
The state argued that O’Brient
had abandoned his motion because
it was not urged until after the jury
was selected. But the criminal ap
peals court said O’Brient had prop
erly filed the motion and was follow
ing the trial judge’s instructions by
not pressing for the motion until
jury selection was begun.
The criminal appeals court also
reversed a 15-year sentence given
Richard Apodaca of El Paso for vol
untary manslaughter in the Jan. 12,
1975, death of Edward Figueroa.
Apodaca was riding in a car driven
by John Lewis that was chasing
Figueroa. Apodaca hit Figueroa’s
vehicle with a tire tool as Lewis pul
led up beside Figueroa. Lewis then
rammed Figueroa’s truck, which hit
an embankment, killing Figueroa.
The court said Apodaca’s convic
tion was defective because he was
held criminally responsible for
Lewis’ acts in causing the wreck.
The court also said although
Apodaca contributed to Figueroa’s
death, Lewis was the “primary ac
tor” in the case.
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United Press International
BROWNSVILLE — Jury
selection was recessed Thursday
in the trial of two Houston area
men accused of plotting to kill
the husband of one defendant’s
ex-wife.
District Judge Darrell Hester
Wednesday ordered jury selec
tion recessed until Friday in the
trial of Archie Herman Burkhal-
ter, 51, and Scott David M in
nick, 21.
Burkhalter and Minnick are
accused of plotting to kill John
Hensley, 40, who was shot
through the eyes and blinded by
a .223-caliber bullet fired by a
sniper outside his South Padre
Island condominium on Feb. 15.
Prosecution and defense at
torneys were thought to be near
ing completion of their qualifying
of a 32-member panel, from
which each side will strike 10
names.
Hester earlier Wednesday
slightly relaxed security at the
courthouse by removing four
armed marksmen from the roof,
after one or more of his fellow
district judges complained that
their presence created a “circus
like atmosphere.”
The indictment alleges that
Burkhalter — a wealthy
Pasadena physician who formerly
was married to Hensley’s wife,
Laurita — offered $15,000 and a
new Cadillac to have Hensley
killed. S.J. Wilburn, 56, Min
nick’s uncle, was sentenced to
life imprisonment in July after a
Brownsville jury convicted him
as the hired gunman in the shoot
ing.
Hensley at the time was
scheduled to testify against
Burkhalter in a kidnapping trial
in which he allegedly spirited his
ex-wife from Hensley’s home to
his Pasadena hospital on Oct. 13,
1978.
During questioning of the
60-member jury panel Wednes
day, Houston attorney Bob
Heath indicated he may not call
any witnesses or put on any evi
dence in Minnick’s behalf when
testimony begins.
Professor’s killer gets life
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — A judge
Wednesday sentenced a second
man to life imprisonment for the
slaying of Trinity University jour
nalism professor Bill Hays.
Judge John Benavides assessed
the life term in 187th District Court
for Carl St. Anthony, 27, who
pleaded guilty to a murder charge.
Prosecutors agreed to drop a capi
tal murder indictment against St.
Anthony in the plea bargain.
Earher, Benavides had sentenced
a companion of St. Anthony, admit
ted male prostitute Loyd Myers, 22,
to a life prison term in a similar plea
bargain arrangement.
Hays was found beaten and stab
bed to death at his bachelor apart
ment Feb. 15.
Myers testified that Hays had of
fered to buy him an automobile if he
would live with him and that St. An
thony was upset with his relation
ship with the professor.
P
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