CALGARY - The man charged with attempted murder in the brutal beating of a Canadian tourist in Mexico on Jan. 20 told a Mexican newspaper he was forced to sign a confession and he has no idea what it says.

Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero, who confessed to being drunk and high on drugs when he met Calgarian Sheila Nabb in an elevator in a five-star hotel in Mazatlan before punching the woman, told Noroeste he never intended to kill the tourist and that he had confessed to the attack because he believed he would be offered leniency.

"I never should have hit her, never, but I never meant to kill her," he's quoted as saying.

"I know that they (the authorities) need to clean up the image of Mazatlan because it was a Canadian tourist, I understand that, but either way, if they charge me (with a lesser charge than attempted murder) they still get to clean up the image and they already have me in here."

After his arrest, officers last Friday forced him to sign a confession which he did not write and which he was not allowed to read, Acosta Quintero said in a jailhouse interview with a Mexican journalist.

"I don't know what my declaration says," he said.

"They didn't tell me anything else just, 'Sign it,' and I said, 'Can I read it?'"

He told Noroeste that he was then sworn at and told to, "Just sign it ... it's getting late and we want to go."

Another document Acosta Quintero said he was forced to sign on Sunday stated he had "meant to kill the woman." He says when he told officials he had never said that, he was told he didn't have to agree with the document but that by signing he was simply acknowledging he had read it.

Acosta Quintero, who according to Noroeste is a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S., also denied claims he has a criminal history involving an assault in 2008.

"I was questioned but released that same day...there were never any charges...I never went to jail."
Nabb, 37, who was on vacation with her husband Andrew, suffered a broken jaw and other extensive facial injuries. She was flown back to Calgary early Friday where she is continuing her recovery at Foothills hospital.