Yanira Maldonado, the Arizona mother freed after nine days in a Mexican jail on a mistaken drug charge, said Friday that she got through the ordeal by reading scripture with other inmates and thinking of her family.

Beaming after her release, she told reporters: “I’m free. I’m free. I’m free. I was innocent.”

Maldonado, 42, was in Mexico with her husband for a funeral and was detained May 22 after soldiers found 12 pounds of marijuana taped under her seat on a bus that she was taking back to the United States.

She was released late Thursday after court officials reviewed security footage that showed the couple boarding the bus carrying only blankets, bottles of water and her purse.

Maldonado walked out of the jail and into the arms of her husband, Gary, and was driven back to the United States. She said that she would return to Mexico, but not for some time.

She described her time in jail as “very sad” but said she had been treated respectfully. Maldonado, a Mormon, said that she found a copy of the Book of Mormon in jail and read it and prayed with the other inmates.

“My faith and my family kept me going,” she said.

Maldonado, a mother of seven, was born in Mexico and is a naturalized American citizen. She stressed to reporters at a press conference in Nogales, Ariz., that the mistake was the fault of “a few people,” not the country. With a shrug, she said that she had just sat in the wrong seat.

“I love Mexico. My family is still there,” she said. “Mexico is a beautiful country. Please don’t take it wrong.”

She said that she needed to rest and was looking forward to seeing her children: “They can’t wait to see me.”

Maldonado and her family had proclaimed her innocence ahead of her release.

“I just want to be back home right now with my family, my kids and my husband,’’ Maldonado told Miguel Almaguer in an interview that aired Thursday morning on TODAY.

"I wanted to find a way out, and I’m telling them I’m innocent, I’m innocent. I keep saying what happened, and I’m still here, so I just have faith in the Lord.”

Maldonado and her husband were married a year ago. She said before her release that she believed she may have been set up at the military checkpoint, where soldiers initially accused her husband of smuggling the marijuana before detaining her instead.

Soldiers staffing a checkpoint stopped the bus in Hermosillo, about 170 miles from the U.S. border.

NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Related:

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This story was originally published on Fri May 31, 2013 4:56 AM EDT

Courtesy of Maldonado family

Gary (left) and Yanira Maldonado were stopped for alleged drug smuggling on their bus ride home to Phoenix from Mexico after they went to Mexico for Yanira's relative's funeral.

An American woman who went to Mexico for a family funeral has been stuck there for nearly a week, accused of smuggling drugs and facing a potential 10-year prison sentence.

But Yanira Maldonado's family says she is a victim of Mexican corruption, and is hopeful a judge may free her in the coming days. A hearing in her case that started on Tuesday concluded for the day without a decision on her freedom.

Six days earlier, Maldonado and her husband, Gary, were on a bus home to Goodyear, Ariz., after going to her aunt's funeral in Mexico. The bus was stopped at a military checkpoint outside Hermosillo, about 170 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, their relatives said.

Soldiers ordered everyone off the bus and interrogated all the passengers, but didn't question the Maldonados — Mormon parents of seven children, according to Gary's brother-in-law, Brandon Klippel, who also lives in the Phoenix area. 

"They're very staunch Mormons. They're extremely active in their church, to the most far side that you could possibly be in the faith," Klippel said, adding that Maldonado's detainment has been "devastating."

Yanira Maldonado is accused of drug trafficking and possessing 5.7 kilos of marijuana "that were bungee-corded to the metal post beneath her seat. The minimum sentence is 10 years in federal prison," according to Klippel. 

At first, soldiers targeted Gary, and police arrested him first. Hours later, authorities allegedly switched their story, and claimed the drugs were underneath Maldonado's seat.

As Maldonado was taken to jail, a local attorney arrived and allegedly told Gary, "You know how it works in Mexico, right?" and explained money would secure his wife's release.

"The attorney that Gary called was from a list of attorneys who were ranked on a list of how well they spoke English. He talked to the prosecuting attorney before he talked to Gary, and then he came to Gary and said, 'If we give them money, they'll release your wife.'" 

Gary offered $3,500. The prosecuting attorney allegedly bargained for $5,000, which Gary frantically got wired to him from family members back home. After he managed to scrounge up the money — at this point a day later — he found out Maldonado had been transferred from Hermosillo to a women's correctional facility in Nogales, on the border.

"His attorney's assistant said in broken English, 'It's not about money anymore, and they want you to leave,'" Klippel said.

The U.S. Consulate in Hermosillo said it could not comment on the matter and referred all questions to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City, which did not return a phone call seeking comment. The Mexican Consulate in Washington, D.C., said federal officials are in “close communication” with Mexico’s government to “guarantee Mrs. Maldonado’s right to Consular assistance.”

“Mrs. Maldonado’s rights to a defense counsel and due process are being observed. As the process is ongoing and a preliminary decision by the judge is due soon, no other comments will be made at this time,” Consulate spokeswoman Lydia Antonio said.

'Nightmare that felt surreal'
At 10 a.m. local time Tuesday, Maldonado went before a judge with her Mexican attorney. By late afternoon, Klippel got word that "there will not be any verdict issued today."

The past week has felt like a "nightmare," he said.

"At first, it just seemed surreal. You didn't believe it. You said, 'This is just going to blow over, it's a mistake,'" Klippel said. "The reality is sinking in now that in this country, this thing happens and we don't have a protocol to follow when this happens. What went from being a nightmare that felt surreal is turning into a reality that is overwhelming emotionally." 

Maldonado’s family has visited her in jail.

"She's not doing well," Klippel said. "Just to get in, you have multiple guards with machine guns with their fingers on the trigger staring you down as you get in there. It smells awful. There's this big mesh window that she sits at, and she just cries, saying, 'I've never done anything illegal in my life.'" 

Maldonado is wearing clothes lent to her by another inmate because there are no uniforms, Klippel said, and she's buying food from other inmates because the jail expects family members to provide meals for their relatives behind bars.

"This is the most horrible circumstance," Klippel said. "We want her home soon."

He's hopeful that will happen. 

"They have witnesses who saw that they were the last ones to get on the bus," Klippel said. "They saw them put their luggage underneath and get on the bus without anything with them. How they managed to hide big blocks of marijuana and bungee-cord them underneath is overwhelmingly ridiculous."

Four of those witnesses testified on Tuesday, he said. 

"It's a challenge though. Some people won't come unless they're financially compensated, and some won't come because it's a Mexican court," he said.

A judge had six days to make a decision concerning Maldonado, another brother-in-law, Brian Neerings, said via a Facebook page he has been updating for the family.

"If she is not released within that 6 day window, they are transporting her to a facility in southern Mexico and she will be there for 3-4 months before an official case can be made from the attorney they retained this evening. We are hoping and praying that something happens before that 6 day window expires," he wrote.

It's unclear if the verdict delay will affect the six-day window. Klippel said military officers from the security checkpoint are expected to testify on Wednesday.

This story was originally published on Tue May 28, 2013 7:23 PM EDT

Alonso Castillo / Reuters, file

Relatives pray beside a coffin containing the body of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez during his funeral in Nogales, Mexico, on Oct. 14. A U.S. Border Patrol agent fired at suspected drug smugglers across the border into Mexico late Oct. 10, and the teen was hit seven times, an autopsy showed.

A Mexican teenager killed when the U.S. Border Patrol opened fire on a group of rock throwers in Mexico last year was shot at least seven times from behind, an autopsy by Mexican authorities showed.

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was shot as agents fired into Nogales, Mexico, after responding to reports of drug trafficking on Oct 10.

An attorney for the Elena Rodriguez family, Luis F. Parra, released a copy of the Mexican medical examiner's report on Thursday.

The autopsy was conducted several hours after the shooting. It found that the teen had been struck in the head, neck and body by at least seven bullets fired from behind him. It described several other bullet injuries, some of which may have been exit wounds.

Following the shooting, Mexican authorities condemned the U.S. Border Patrol's use of lethal force and called for a timely and transparent investigation.

In a written statement, the Border Patrol said the incident began shortly before midnight on October 10 when agents responded to reports of two suspected smugglers, who they watched drop drugs on the Arizona side of the border.

The smugglers then fled back across the border into Mexico and "began assaulting the agents with rocks." An unnamed agent opened fire after the suspects refused orders to stop, the patrol said.

News pictures taken shortly after the October shooting showed Elena Rodriguez' apparently lifeless body face down on the sidewalk a few yards south of the border fence, which consists of parallel steel barriers.

Alonso Castillo / Reuters, file

A cross is seen at the U.S.-Mexico border near the site where Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was found dead.

The FBI has been leading the investigation into the shooting. A spokesman for the agency's Phoenix division declined on Thursday to comment on the autopsy or the continuing investigation.

Parra did not immediately respond to a request on Thursday for comment on the autopsy's findings.

Elena Rodriguez was the second Mexican teenager killed in a clash with the Border Patrol in the Mexican border city in less than two years. In January 2011, an agent fired into Mexico, killing 17-year-old Ramses Barron of Nogales.

The Elena Rodriguez shooting came more than a week after a Border Patrol agent was shot dead near the border in an apparent friendly fire incident.

Arizona is on a major route for Mexican smuggling networks hauling drugs and illegal immigrants to the United States, and running guns and cash profits back south to Mexico.

Related:

Border Patrol shoots Mexican man from across border

Arizona ranchers demand security at the border

Sources: Friendly Fire killed Border Patrol agent

MEXICO CITY-- The Mexican army says it has found a 50-yard (meter) long tunnel starting under a building in the northern city of Nogales, which is across the border from Nogales, Arizona.

The Defense Department says the tunnel two yards (meters) under the surface may have been used to cross the border into the United States. However, the department's statement Sunday does not say whether the tunnel actually reaches into U.S. territory or whether any entrance on the U.S. side has been found.

Such tunnels found previously in Nogales and elsewhere on the border have been used to move drugs or migrants.

The tunnel was discovered by soldiers Friday. The army says one man carrying an illegal weapon was detained at the scene.

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