U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer on Monday granted a motion for appointment of a new attorney for an illegal immigrant who was apprehended allegedly guarding a large marijuana field off Warrensburg Road last year.

Bedo Pineda-Infanti, 58, a Mexican national, had been scheduled to be sentenced on Monday, but he filed a hand-written request last month for appointment of a new defense attorney to replace Assistant Federal Defender Tim S. Moore.

"When I took my (guilty) plea, I honestly didn't understand what I was told," the handwritten motion said in part.

Pineda-Infanti had pleaded guilty last Dec. 5 to conspiracy to manufacture 1,000, or more, marijuana plants; possessing a Glenfield Model 60 .22-caliber rifle and a Chinese-made Norinco MAC90 7.62-by-39-mm rifle in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime; and being an illegal alien in possession of firearms.

A federal criminal complaint filed against Pineda-Infanti by FBI Special Agent Kevin Keithley on Sept. 18, 2007, alleged that from Sept. 1 until "on or about Sept. 13," Pineda-Infanti "and other persons, known and unknown, conspired to manufacture 1,000, or more marijuana plants.

The complaint says that on Sept. 13, agents of the Third Judicial District Drug Task Force, who were investigating a report of a large marijuana growing operation, located Pineda-Infanti and the marijuana patch in Greene County.

The plea agreement in the case said that on Sept. 13 "a citizen of Greene County reported to law-enforcement (that) he had come upon a marijuana field."

On that day according to the plea agreement, Third Judicial District Drug Task Force agents came upon the marijuana field.

"Four individuals were in the field when DTF agents arrived," the plea agreement states.

"Three individuals fled, (with) one of them dropping the Norinco MAC90 rifle. Agents found defendant Bedo Pineda-Infanti a short distance from the main marijuana patch, cultivating a marijuana plant."

None of the other three people in the field when agents raided it have been located or charged, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Hebets.

The main marijuana field, according to the plea agreement, was "approximately 50 yards wide and 600 to 700 yards long" and contained an estimated 8,000 marijuana plants.

Pineda-Infanti, according to the plea agreement, admitted that he was in the United States illegally and told federal investigators that he had been recruited to guard the marijuana field and was to be paid $100 per day.