Former suspect in kidnapping case makes new request

Armed with a new lawyer, former kidnapping suspect Jose Lopez-Buelna made another request Wednesday to back out of his plea agreement.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro denied the same request.

Soon after, Lopez-Buelna and his lawyer, Robert Draskovich, each filed motions asking to end their attorney-client relationship.

Navarro agreed and appointed Reno attorney Robert Story to represent the defendant, who once was suspected of helping kidnap 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger in a case that attracted national attention.

Lopez-Buelna, 50, contends Draskovich misrepresented the terms of the plea bargain, but Draskovich has denied the allegation.

During a three-week trial, federal prosecutors tried to prove that Lopez-Buelna and another man had kidnapped Cole as revenge after the boy's grandfather took off with $4.5 million in drug money. Prosecutors alleged Lopez-Buelna ran a Mexican drug cartel's operations from Las Vegas.

Defense lawyers accused the boy's mother and grandmother of staging the kidnapping to lure his grandfather out of hiding with the missing drug money.

Prosecutors dropped all kidnapping and hostage-taking charges in February, before the trial ended, as part of plea negotiations with the two defendants.

Lopez-Buelna pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to launder money and two counts of money laundering.

"At the time he entered his plea Lopez-Buelna suffered from extreme stress, poor health, and impaired reasoning and received insufficient, if not incorrect information from his prior attorney, all of which caused him to simply give up and admit guilt to something he had always denied doing," Story wrote in the new motion.

According to the plea agreement, the defendant was told that a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years applies to the drug charge.

Prosecutors are recommending a 30-year prison term, and probation officials are recommending a 17-year term. The defendant's sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 29.

"After the government concluded its case in chief, Lopez-Buelna's prior attorney persuaded Lopez-Buelna to enter a guilty plea without putting on a defense," Story wrote. "According to Lopez-Buelna, his prior attorney spent very little time with him discussing the meaning and consequences of a guilty plea; and his prior attorney informed him that he would receive a sentence of ten or fewer years."

According to the motion, the defendant "is a native of Mexico, has a very limited education, and has no real understanding of the American legal system."

"In addition, Lopez-Buelna asserts that he is in poor health, having suffered life-threatening heart problems, and was under extreme stress from the trial," Story wrote.

At a hearing last month, Navarro concluded that Lopez-Buelna understood the terms of his plea bargain when he accepted it.

"You may have a little bit of buyer's remorse now," she told the defendant.

Navarro has said prosecutors failed to prove that Cole was kidnapped. The Las Vegas boy was missing for four days in October 2008.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.