Deputy finishes prision term amid controversy over his conviction
By: John Russell | Source: IRN News
October 16, 2007 4:45PM EST

On September thirteenth Gilmer Hernandez finished ten and a half months of a one year one day sentance in federal custody, seven and a half months spent in solitary confinement. The former deputy sheriff's crime? He shot the front tires of a van was transporting illegal aliens who's driver at the time was trying the run over the young officer. The authorities at both the county and state level in Texas considered the shooting justified, however the Mexican goverment did not. They insisted on Hernandez's prosicution claiming the the rights of two of the illegals hiding in the back of the van were violated when bullet fragments caused the pair some minor injuries. Acting on the demand of Mexican government, controversial federal prosecutor Johnny Sutton pursued the case. Sutton is notorious for his handling of the case of two border patrolmen given lengthy prission terms for shooting at and posssibly wounding a repeat offending drug smuggler. Hernandez says he will not appeal his case fearing the possiblity of a longer prison sentence.