Scott Warren testifies in his own defense as border-aid trial wraps up in Tucson
TUCSON — Scott Warren, the No More Deaths volunteer facing up to 20 years in federal prison for allegedly providing humanitarian aid to two migrants, testified on Thursday about the events leading to his 2018 arrest.
Warren’s testimony capped the sixth day of the felony trial against him, which is likely to wrap up Friday as a jury decides whether to acquit or convict.
Warren faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of conspiring to transport and of harboring two undocumented immigrants at a building in the desert outside of Ajo in southwestern Arizona.
The two migrants showed up at the building, known as “the Barn,” on Jan. 14, 2018. Three days later, Border Patrol agents raided the Barn, arresting Warren and the two migrants, Kristian Perez-Villanueva and Jose Arnaldo Sacaria-Goday, two young men from Central America.
Warren took the stand late Wednesday, talking about how his personal beliefs influenced him to volunteer with No More Deaths starting in 2012. His testimony resumed on Thursday morning, taking most of the day.
He described his first encounter with Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday on Jan. 14, saying he was taking groceries to the Barn when he unexpectedly found them waiting outside the building.
“My intent was to provide them with some basic humanitarian aid,” Warren said when asked by his attorney if he had intended to break the law by helping the two men.
Warren said that he had explained to the two men that “we are not going to hide them, we’re not going to keep them from Border Patrol,” when they arrived to the Barn.
Warren then gave the two men a medical assessment, finding blisters on their feet, as well as a rib injury for one and symptoms of a cold in another, according to medical notes he took.
He spent about three hours with them, he testified, calling a doctor that volunteers with the group who told him to have them rest off their feet to treat the blisters.
In all, he said he had spent about five hours with Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday over the course of three days before Border Patrol agents came to the Barn on Jan. 17.
Before they arrived, Warren said that he had gone to the Barn to prepare for the arrival of a group of volunteers from a Flagstaff school.
When he arrived he said he didn’t know if the men had fully recovered and would still be there. But he found that they were preparing to take off.
“I was concerned about their condition still, however, they were ready to leave,” Warren said. “They were on their way out.”
A short time later, as he was outside the building lighting a bonfire, he saw the caravan of Border Patrol and law enforcement vehicles headed in his direction, he testified.
He denied having ever given the men instructions to avoid Border Patrol detection, or telling them to hide when agents arrived.
“You had to know the jig is up, right? These people were going to be taken into custody,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathaniel Walters asked.
At times, the line of questioning from the U.S. prosecutors became more aggressive.
Walters asserted that Warren had likely met one of the migrants, PerezVillanueva, when he visited the shelter in nearby Sonoyta, Mexico, on Jan. 12. That’s the same day, he pointed, that Perez-Villanueva and Sacaria-Goday crossed the border.
However, Warren denied ever making any agreement to take them in when they showed up at the Barn on Jan. 14.
Closing arguments in the trial are likely on Friday morning. Once they conclude, the jury will begin deliberations on the case.