Co-conspirator of man who killed DEA agent on train pleads guilty

The co-conspirator of a man who shot and killed a DEA agent in 2021 pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court on Wednesday.

Officials say 24-year-old Devonte Mathis was traveling with 26-year-old Darrion Taylor on an Amtrak train from Los Angeles to New Orleans that had arrived at the Tucson station about 7:40 a.m. Oct. 4, 2021.

Court documents say the two men were carrying a little over 3 kilograms of marijuana when a regional task force of Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Tucson police officers boarded one of the cars to do a typical check for illegal money, weapons and drugs.

Court documents say an officer saw Mathis retrieving three bags and moved them three to four rows away before returning to his original seat. The officer approached Mathis to ask if those were his bags, which Mathis denied. After Mathis denied ownership of the bags, the officer removed them from the train.

The officer opened the backpack and found two packages of marijuana.

Court documents say officers and agents were in the middle of detaining Mathis on the upper level of the double-decker car when Taylor fired upon them. He exchanged several rounds with police and then barricaded himself in a bathroom on the lower level. He was later found dead inside. Court documents say Taylor shot and killed DEA Agent Michael Garbo, a 16year veteran of the agency. Another agent and a Tucson officer were hospitalized with injuries but survived.

Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson for the Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office in Northern California, told The Arizona Republic at the time that Taylor bonded out of jail after resisting arrest on an outstanding warrant for a separate case in Sacramento and was wanted on a $200,000 warrant.

A copy of Mathis’ plea agreement shows him pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana along with one count of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

Mathis would serve “no greater than 10 years’ imprisonment,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mathis is scheduled to be sentenced on May 24 before U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez.

“Yesterday was an important step in securing justice on behalf of a federal law enforcement agent,” U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino said in the statement. “We await the sentencing in this matter. In the meantime, we celebrate Michael Garbo’s life of service, we mourn with his family and his colleagues at the Drug Enforcement Administration, and we remember his end of watch on October 4, 2021.”