Jury starts deliberations in border shooting case

TUCSON — A jury must decide if an Arizona Border Patrol agent is guilty of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter for shooting and killing a Mexican teenager through the border fence in Nogales.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys made their closing arguments in federal court on Friday and jurors began their deliberations.

The case involves Agent Lonnie Swartz, who is on trial a second time for shooting at 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez. The teen had been throwing rocks over the fence during a botched smuggling operation in October 2012 when Swartz fired 16 shots in 34 seconds, striking Elena Rodriguez 10 times in the back.

In April, jurors acquitted Swartz of second-degree murder but were hung on voluntary or involuntary manslaughter charges. That set up the fourweek retrial before U.S. District Court Judge Raner C. Collins.

The retrial, which began Oct. 24, was another chance for federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona and for the family of Elena Rodriguez to get a conviction against Swartz.

Because the burden of proof falls on the government, defense attorneys again aimed to poke holes in prosecutors’ arguments.

Much of the retrial was a rehash of the first one. Swartz again took the stand in his own defense and said he did not remember what happened that night. His attorneys brought in experts to testify that was normal given the stress he was under that night and that he was acting in self-defense and to protect his fellow agents.

“The way he was acting, he was legally authorized to use deadly force,” lead attorney Sean Chapman told jurors during his closing arguments. “And that’s what he chose to do.”

But prosecutors accused Swartz of “methodically and deliberately” shooting Elena Rodriguez. They pointed to the fact that he had been involved in seven other rock-throwing incidents prior to the fatal shooting in October 2012.

“This was about stopping the rocks. This was not about protecting anyone,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Sue Feldmeier told jurors. “There is no justification for what happened that night. Not the first shot, not the 16th shot.”

There were some differences the first and second trials.

Swartz’s attorneys did not call one of their key witnesses, a woman who lived near the site of the shooting, which happened along West International Street in Nogales.

In April, she denied under oath having known Elena Rodriguez, despite telling investigators initially that her grandson had gone to school with him. She also denied in court having told investigators that she had seen the teenager on the U.S. side of the fence prior to the shooting.

This time around, defense attorneys simply read off of her original statements to investigators. Chapman told jurors on Friday that the witness lied during her testimony under oath. He suggested she was afraid because she lived in an area next to the border where drug smuggling is common. between