FEDERAL JUDGE OVERRULES JURY'S GUILTY VERDICT IN POT CASE

SACRAMENTO- A federal judge has ordered a new trial for two undocumented
Mexican immigrants convicted of growing more than 1,000 marijuana plants in
northern California.

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr.'s ruling overturned jury verdicts
that could have sent Miguel Navarro Viayra, 25, and Manuel Alvarez Guerra,
22, to prison for 10 years.

Both were arrested two years ago at a remote Mendocino National Forest camp
and charged with conspiracy, manufacturing marijuana plants and possessing
firearms to facilitate drug trafficking. A jury found the two guilty of
conspiracy and manufacturing, but deadlocked on the gun charges.

The judge's ruling bolsters a popular defense argument that undocumented
immigrants, believing themselves recruited for honest work, become hostage
laborers for major marijuana growers. Federal prosecutors had portrayed the
pair as opportunists trying to make fast money growing pot.

Viayra and Guerra told jurors they had no access to weapons and faced armed
guards who promised to shoot them if they tried to leave. Viayra said he was
hired in Fresno for a Sacramento construction job. Guerra said, while in
Mexico, he was offered a job cutting wood in northern California. The two
were stripping marijuana leaves the day before their arrest.

In Damrell's 21-page ruling issued Wednesday, he noted "the lack of direct
evidence connecting these defendants to the weapons and ammunition, and
circumstances of these two young, virtually penniless, likely illiterate,
and illegal (immigrants) who were found abandoned in a remote camp in the
wilderness with apparently no idea where they were."

The two were sleeping when 10 law enforcement officers raided the site.
Nearly 20 others, including the growers, fled without being caught, court
testimony indicated.

Damrell's ruling also questioned contentions that the two could have freely
left the camp. If they had left, he wrote, "where could they have gone?"

Prosecutors offered no comment on the ruling. Their options include
appealing Damrell's decision, retrying the case or dismissing charges.