Story Published:
Jun 1, 2008 at 1:32 AM EST
Story Updated:
Jun 1, 2008 at 7:14 PM EST
Fresno Army Specialist, Richard Medina Torres returned back home to Fresno on Saturday.
He was arrested more than five weeks ago when he unintentionally drove into Mexico with firearms in his car.
Today he and his mom were reunited for the first time since his release on Friday.
Medina Torres drove all night.
He hadn't slept in more than 24 hours when he arrived home Saturday afternoon in Fresno.
It was a sweet homecoming and it was all caught on tape.
The wait is finally over.
After spending nearly a month and a half inside one of Mexico’s most notorious prisons and more than 15 hours on the road, Fresno Army Specialist Richard Medina Torres pulls up to his mother's house in Fresno, Its the moment he and his mother have been waiting for.
Preston Phillips: "What was going through your mind on the way home?
Richard Medina Torres: “I just wanted to get home. I wasn't trying to get anywhere near the border, a straight shot."
Medina Torres was arrested on April 21st, when he drove into Mexico with weapons in his car.
He says he never meant to cross the border, but says one wrong turn left him with no other choice.
Preston Phillips: "Did you think that once you got across the border that they'd let you go back and you wouldn't get arrested?
Richard Medina Torres: “I figured there would be a place I could turn around over there, I didn't see the signs. I was following directions I thought I was given correctly. I was following those and when I looked up, I’d see welcome to Mexico."
But Friday morning, after more than five weeks behind bars at Cereso Prison, the weapons charge against him was dropped and he was set free.
He says it's a place he never wants to return to again.
Richard Medina Torres: “It sucks; it was just bad conditions, cockroaches and overcrowded rooms and everything."
Meanwhile, his mother says she's just happy to have back home in Fresno where she knows he'll be safe.
Gloria Medina: "Being a mother and being that he's my only child, I just wanna hold onto him and not let him go."
Medina Torres says he'll now spend the next two weeks with mom before he reports back to Fort Hood, Texas so he can get back to serving his country.
His mom says she'll take what she can get.
Gloria Medina: "I can finally touch him and see him and talk to him in person instead of through a phone, where sometimes you couldn't hear him because of the noise in the background."
Richard Medina Torres: "I guess its kind of too many feelings to explain, its just overjoyed and just happy to be released. I couldn't believe it finally happened."
Medina Torres says he's been banned from Mexico for a year, but says its ok, because he doesn't plan on returning to the country anytime soon.
On Sunday, the interview with Medina Torres and his mother will be posted on ksee24.com in its entirety.
Click on the video link to watch Preston Phillips’ exclusive report.
