Uncle of dead boy admits perjury

Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

Dateline: Benton County, Indiana

By Joe Gerrety

jgerrety@journalandcourier.com

The uncle of an Oxford boy who went missing and was later found dead has pleaded guilty to perjury, admitting he lied in a court hearing in an unrelated case.

Miguel A. Campos, 20, of West Lafayette was scheduled to go on trial on the Class D felony charge last Friday in Benton Circuit Court but instead decided to plead guilty.

Campos admitted he lied under oath during a July 2003 court hearing in which Benton County prosecutors were attempting to revoke the probation he was serving on a conviction for consumption of alcohol by a minor.

Campos is the uncle of Nicolas Zavala, who was 11 years old when he disappeared in August 2002. Nicolas' remains were found in an Illinois farm field in April 2003.

No one has been charged in connection with Nicolas' death.

Campos was living with Nicolas in the home of Campos' mother, Margaret Williams, when Nicolas disappeared.

Williams is serving a 7-year prison sentence after February 2004 convictions for neglect of a dependent and battery for meting out cruel forms of punishment to Nicolas in the months leading up to his death.

Campos, who was a juvenile at the time, also was accused of participating in the punishment.

The probation revocation from which Campos' perjury charge grew was based on a drug screen in which Campos tested positive for Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication.

Campos presented evidence indicating that, at the time, he had a valid prescription for Xanax, issued in October 2002 and refilled three to four times. Based on his testimony, Judge Rex Kepner of Benton Circuit Court found prosecutors had failed to prove the alleged probation violation.

But after the hearing, deputy prosecutor Craig Jones said, investigators checked the original prescription and found that it was non-refillable.

Campos pleaded guilty Friday morning as his perjury trial was scheduled to begin. He could face up to three years in prison when he is sentenced next month. But the offense could be reduced to a misdemeanor.

As for the Zavala case, Benton County prosecutor Jud Barce said he knows of no recent developments in police efforts to solve the mystery of how he died.

"The state police continue to investigate it, but they haven't sought my assistance with anything in the investigation for at least a year," Barce said Monday.