MAN PERSUADES MEXICO TO CONVICT BROTHER'S KILLER.

Byline: Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writer

After battling the Mexican justice system for nearly four years, Joe Amado finally has succeeded in sending his brother's killer to prison.

Amado had convinced the Mexican government that Mario Amado was the victim of a murder and had not hanged himself in his jail cell, as Mexican police had claimed. Then, he won a conviction.

Yet Joe Amado said Friday he still isn't satisfied.

A Mexican judge sentenced Rosarito police officer Jose Antonio Verduzco Flores to 8-1/2 years in prison Wednesday for Mario Amado's intentional murder in June 1992.

"I am not happy with the sentence. I was hoping for at least 50," Amado, a 53-year-old Shadow Hills resident, said Friday.

According to the American Consulate in Tijuana, Flores is appealing the sentence, even though it is just six months more than the minimum allowed and nearly 42 years less than the maximum.

Intentional homicide, the American equivalent of second-degree murder, carries under Mexican law a sentence of eight years to 50 years, said Jorge Ricardo Garcia Villalobos, of the Mexican Attorney General's Office in Los Angeles.

By contrast, the penalty for second-degree murder in the United States is a life sentence in prison, with eligibility for parole after about seven years.

Miguel Escobar, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, said the Flores conviction proves that his government is "quite serious about prosecuting infractors of the law."

Escobar said he could not comment on the sentence because he does not know the details of the case. But he said, "No one is above the law. Not even police officers. There is no impunity in Mexico."

Joe Amado said he plans to sue Flores and register yet another complaint with the Mexican government. In the meantime, he tries to find solace in his David-and-Goliath victory over the Mexican authorities, who initially claimed that Amado had committed suicide while in police custody.

"I am happy in a sense. Hey - I got a conviction, an admission of guilt that they did murder him," Joe Amado said.

What began as a weekend vacation south of the border, ended with the 29-year-old welder's arrest after a fight with his girlfriend - and then his death.

He was one of 977 Americans arrested in Mexico during 1992 and among 67 who complained of abuse or mistreatment, according to the State Department.

The police initially told Joe Amado that his brother had hanged himself from the bars of his cell with a sweater. A Mexican pathologist ruled the death a suicide.

But Joe Amado knew the truth.

Convincing the Mexican government took persistence and three autopsies, one of which required the exhumation of Mario Amado's body.

With new evidence that pointed toward foul play, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Panorama City, used his influence on the House International Relations Committee to reopen the case.

Throughout his odyssey, Amado held the memory of his brother as inspiration. "I didn't abandon my brother," he said. "I can rest now."