A South Florida marine who was jailed in Mexico after he accidentally crossed the border with firearms in March is set to have a hearing with a judge for the first time on Wednesday, CBS News reported.
In a phone interview with CNN on Tuesday, Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, from Weston, said that he was "more hopeful" and "optimistic" than ever that he would be released from the Mexican prison, where he has been imprisoned for more than three months after he allegedly drove into Mexico by accident carrying three firearms in his truck.
"I'm not as down as I once was," he said from the El Hongo Penitentiary in Tecate, Mexico, where he is being held. "My relationship with the guards has turned more into a friendship, so I don't feel as alone, I guess. Once the media started covering it ... things did start changing. ... I'm just trying to keep my cool and stay relaxed."
While driving to meet up with a friend on March 31st, Tahmooressi claimed that he took a wrong turn on the California side of the border into Tijuana, Mexico, with all his belongings, including legally purchased U.S. guns, in his pick-up truck. He was detained by Mexican border officials for possessing a .45-caliber pistol, a 12-gauge pump shotgun and an AR-15 rifle and taken to La Mesa prison. "I was going to call them after I drove off the exit, but I never got off the exit, I blew right past it," he told U-T San Diego in an interview from jail. "I wasn't paying attention, thinking I had way farther to go. I ended up in Mexico with no way to turn around."
The Mexican agents at the border had given Tahmooressi a chance to surrender his weapons and return to the United States without incident, the director of the Tijuana checkpoint told Mexican media last month. But Tahmooressi told CNN that's "a lie." "That's not true at all. They never told me anything of that sort," he said.
If Tahmooressi is convicted, he faces six to 21 years in a Mexican prison, his lawyers said. But the marine believes that he shouldn't be receiving any punishment. "I feel like the punishment was never necessary from the beginning. But once the (Mexican) military people got involved, they were like, 'Look what we found, we found these guns, good for us. Let's get this guy incriminated.' There was some good people at the border who were going to do the right thing, and that's how it should have been from the start."
"My court date is on Wednesday. Once the judge gets to hear me out, I think it should go well. And I think it shouldn't be too much longer (that I will be in prison) after that, I hope."
Tahmooressi, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, had moved to San Diego for treatment after serving two tours of duty in Afghanistan.
