Newsmonger: AF recruiter charged with rape, Chan targets Nexolon deal

Manuel Vasquez, 44, was convicted in the killing of Juanita Ybarra. Prosecutors claimed Vásquez and two other men strangled Ybarra and beat her boyfriend because she'd failed to pay the "dime," or 10 percent tax on drug sale proceeds, back to the gang. Vásquez's lengthy criminal record before his conviction includes over 21 years served in prison for an aggravated assault, and three years he served after pleading guilty to attempted murder in 1992.

In his appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Vásquez claimed prosecutors withheld notes from an interview with Ybarra's boyfriend in which he "described the events of the murder differently from how he described them at trial." In addition to claiming he had ineffective counsel, Vásquez's appeal claims one of his partners also charged in the Ybarra killing, Johnny Joe Cruz, testified for the prosecution and in exchange received a seven-year sentence. The other man arrested in the murder, Oligario Luján, 42, is serving a 35-year sentence for aggravated robbery.

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