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	Mexican Judge: Priest's Killer Got Maximum Sentence By Jeremy Schwartz Austin American-Statesman May 7, 2009 http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2009/05/07/priests_killer_got_maximum_sen.html The 37-and-a-half year sentence meted out to Manuel Martin Torres Saldaña, the confessed killer of an Austin priest, was the maximum allowable under Mexican law, the judge who sentenced him said Thursday morning. Torres Saldaña, 36, faced a 50-year maximum penalty on charges of killing Jesse Euresti, the former pastor of Cristo Rey Catholic Church in East Austin. But because he pleaded guilty, Mexican law calls for his sentence to be reduced by one fourth, said Judge Nancy Dominguez Martinez of the third penal district of the Tamaulipas state court. Euresti's family members had expressed disappointment with the lowered sentence. Dominguez said she could have handed out a lighter sentence, but gave Torres Saldaña the maximum allowable under law. "I evaluated his motive, how he killed this person, the tools he used and determined his level of danger," Dominguez said. "His level of danger was the maximum." Dominguez said that Torres Saldaña must still accept the sentence for it to take effect and that he previously indicated he would do so. Parole is available under the Mexican legal system, but is not determined as part of sentencing. Torres Saldaña, who lived in Euresti's Nuevo Laredo retirement home, has confessed to killing Euresti during an altercation in late March. Torres Saldaña told the media that after stabbing Euresti multiple times, he dumped the priest's body in a remote area on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo. He then fled to the southern state of Chiapas. He was arrested April 6, shortly before he planned to slip across the Mexican border into Guatemala. Dominguez said the speed of Torres Saldaña's sentencing was not unusual given his guilty plea and request for a summary judgment. The case was conducted in Mexico's written trial system, in which judges read petitions filed by attorneys and hand out sentences in written form.
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