Opinion ID: 198913
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Trip Across the Mexican Border

Text: 24 Hughes objects to the prosecutor's statement to the jury that: 25 the defendant tells [FBI Special Agent] Murphy that he gets the car from Budget. He must have told them that he wasn't going south of Monterey. Why did he have to have a car? He needed a car to get his gun across the border. That's what it boils down to, Ladies and Gentlemen. No magnetometers, no x-rays, lots of places to hide a gun. 26 There is ample evidence in the record to support this statement. Hughes told agent Murphy that he rented a car from the Budget agency in Laredo, Texas. Because the manager at that agency testified that it was company policy not to allow cars to be driven south of Monterey, and the agency rented a car to Hughes, it is reasonable to infer that Hughes said he was not going south of Monterey. 27 The evidence also supports an inference that Hughes rented a car and drove across the border as a means of smuggling a gun into Mexico. First, on the numerous prior occasions that Hughes visited Mexico on business, he had virtually never rented a car. Marquez testified that Hughes disliked driving in Mexico and typically requested that Marquez drive. Second, there is simply no good alternative explanation for Hughes's decision to rent a car in Laredo, Texas, a twelve hour drive from his final destination of Mexico City. There were rental cars available in Mexico City, including cars from American rental car agencies. Third, because the evidence suggested that Hughes's 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol ejected the cartridge casings found at the crime scene in Queretaro, Hughes must have transported a gun into Mexico somehow. The most plausible explanation is that he carried it with him during his drive from Laredo. It is common knowledge that airports have magnetometers and x-ray machines designed to detect concealed weapons.