The two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose conviction of shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks caused a national movement to free them were sentenced today. Ignacio Ramos was given a 11-year sentence in prison, a 10-year mandatory sentence for the assault with a deadly weapon, plus one year for the lesser charges. Jose Alonso Compean was given a 12-year sentence, a 10-year mandatory sentence for the assault with a deadly weapon, plus two years for the lesser charges.
Ramos and Compean were found guilty of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, a civil-rights charge and obstruction of justice in the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila near Fabens.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled that the two former agents will remain free until Jan. 17, when they must surrender themselves. But at that point, the judge could let them free during the appeal process.
