Uresti wants taxpayers to pay for his appeal

Former state Sen. Carlos Uresti’s Helotes estate was pulled from Tuesday’s foreclosure auction. Uresti is shown in June leaving the San Antonio federal courthouse surrounded by a crowd of supporters after being sentenced in the FourWinds Logistics fraud case. less Former state Sen. Carlos Uresti’s Helotes estate was pulled from Tuesday’s foreclosure auction. Uresti is shown in June leaving the San Antonio federal courthouse surrounded by a crowd of supporters after ... more Photo: Billy Calzada /Staff File Photo Photo: Billy Calzada /Staff File Photo Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Uresti wants taxpayers to pay for his appeal 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

Felon and former state Sen. Carlos Uresti wants taxpayers to foot the bill for the appeal of his criminal conviction.

Uresti’s broke and can’t afford the costs to appeal his conviction, his 12-year prison sentence and the $6.3 million in restitution owed to his victims, according to a new court filing.

Uresti is asking Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra to appoint as his appellate lawyer Michael McCrum, a San Antonio criminal-defense lawyer who was part of the legal team that represented the former lawmaker at trial earlier this year.

“Mr. Uresti is financially unable to obtain counsel and wants counsel to remain the same but be appointed by the government because he can’t afford to pay attorney fee, costs, etc.,” a Tuesday court filing states.

The longtime San Antonio Democrat is eligible for a court-appointed lawyer because he is indigent, the filing adds.

McCrum didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

A federal jury convicted Uresti in February on 11 felonies, including wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges related to his roles at Four Winds Logistics, which bought and sold sand used for oil production. The company, however, was a Ponzi scheme and collapsed into bankruptcy in 2015.

Uresti served as FourWinds’ outside legal counsel, was a 1 percent owner and recruited investors.

Ezra sentenced Uresti on June 26, finding that he “engaged in a selfish, destructive course of conduct that he knew, without a doubt was illegal.”

During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing for FourWinds Logistics comptroller Laura Jacobs, Ezra brought up how McCrum had called Uresti’s 12-year sentence “ridiculous.”

Uresti “deserves every day of it,” Ezra said. “He was deeply involved in a very serious crime.”

Requests for a court-appointed lawyer create “great misunderstanding with the public,” said San Antonio criminal-defense lawyer Thomas McHugh. He is not involved in Uresti’s defense.

People say, “look at the life he lived, the money he had and now we’re paying for his appeal,” McHugh said. “So there’s a great misunderstanding. But if you’re out of money, you’re out of money. It would make sense to pay for the lawyer who is most familiar with the case.”

Part of Uresti’s appeal is expected to hinge on a ruling by Ezra disqualifying Mikal Watts, a high-profile San Antonio litigator and Uresti’s friend, from representing him. Ezra ruled Watts had a conflict of interest because he had previously represented a FourWinds investor who was a key government witness against Uresti.

Watts, though, continues to represent Uresti in a separate criminal case that’s set to go to trial in October. Uresti is facing charges that he conspired with others from January 2006 through September 2016 to pay and accept bribes to secure a Reeves County correctional medical services contract for a company run by a Lubbock businessman. Uresti denies the charges.

In an interview shortly after Ezra sentenced Uresti, Watts said he personally paid for the expenses associated with Uresti’s defense in the FourWinds case. McCrum and co-counsel Tab Turner of Arkansas represented Uresti “pro bono,” or for free, Watts added.

“I asked McCrum and Tab Turner to come help a man that needed help because his lawyer got disqualified, and they did,” Watts said.

Watts said Uresti owes him $440,000 in litigation expenses.

“I don’t think he’ll ever have the money to pay me back,” Watts said. “Maybe I should put a lien on the (Uresti office) building that everybody else wants. Who knows?”

Watts then said he wasn’t concerned about getting paid.

“I’m worried about the injustice that my good friend experienced,” Watts said. “I think he’s going to jail for something he didn’t do. I think his rights were violated. I think it’s a travesty of justice.”

Following his sentencing, Uresti told reporters he’s making efforts to collect money for his victims, including trying to sell his home and his office building. A recent deal to sell the office building for just under $1 million fell through, however. His 8,000-square-foot home in Helotes is on the market for $1.7 million.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD