The man who fired the gun that killed a top man in Mexico's ruling party - one of three assassinations that have rocked the country - has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Daniel Aguilar Trevino was sentenced Monday in the September assassination of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, secretary-general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.Six others found guilty of participating in the Sept. 28 killing outside a Mexico City hotel were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 37 to 50 years. All the sentences were handed down by Judge Emma Meza Fonseca of the 11th District Penal Court in Mexico City.
The killing gained even more attention late last month when the attorney general's office arrested the brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and charged him with being the mastermind.
Raul Salinas, 48, is being held in a prison outside Mexico City. A man earlier charged with helping mastermind the murder, PRI Sen. Manuel Munoz Rocha, was never captured and police believe he may be dead. The ex-president wasn't implicated.
There has been no official motive announced, but investigators privately have suggested business and personal differences between Raul Salinas and Ruiz Massieu, who at one time was married to the Salinas' sister, Adriana.