'Assault'

"Assault"

A federal judge is shot

In the sultry morning heat, U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr., 63, walked out of his San Antonio town house to drive to court. Suddenly a sniper's rifle shot rang out. Struck in the small of the back, he wheeled slowly around and collapsed. His wife Kathryn rushed to his side and found him dying. He was the first federal judge to be murdered since 1867.

Appointed to the bench by President Nixon in 1971, Wood had earned the title "Maximum John" because he handed out stiff sentences in the many drug cases in his district, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso. In 90 cases involving heroin traffic, he gave out maximum sentences in 65 and never granted probation. He was often reversed and occasionally criticized for his rulings by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On July 23 he was scheduled to preside over one of his most important trials, that of Las Vegas Gambler Jimmy Chagra, who has been charged with conspiracy to import and distribute thousands of pounds of marijuana and cocaine. His attorneys asked Wood to remove himself from the case, arguing that he was prejudiced, but the judge refused.

"An assault on our very system of justice," President Carter called the crime. The U.S. Justice Department sent 40 FBI agents and 25 U.S. marshals to San Antonio to join forces with the local police. So far no leads have been disclosed, though some witnesses to the shooting said that they saw one or possibly two dark-skinned men fleeing from the scene in a red foreign-made car.

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