In January, 2007, 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, his two brothers and a woman left Puebla, Mexico for the United States – sans visas – slipping into the US at the southern Arizona border, between Bisbee and Douglas.
When Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett intercepted them about 150 yards north of the border, Francisco allegedly picked up a rock and aimed it at the agent. When he refused to drop the rock, Corbett shot and killed him in self- defense.
That story of events from the defense side of the court was accepted by enough jurors in Corbett’s trial for murder to result in a mistrial on Friday, March 7.
The trial has many people convinced this is one more action by the Mexican government to interfere in the efforts of border patrol agents who are intercepting illegal immigrants trying to sneak into the United States.
The case
What is the truth? The jury heard two radically diverging stories from the two sides.
Prosecutor Grant Woods, hired by the Cochise County attorney to prosecute the case, said Domínguez Rivera and the three others were surrendering to Corbett as they walked back toward the border. The victim’s brothers and the brother’s girlfriend testifed that Corbett stopped them and ordered them to get down on their knees.
Once on their knees, the witnesses said, Corbett shot Dominguez through the heart from behind.
Corbett, for his part, testified that Dominguez was going to smash his head with a baseball-sized rock and he fired in self-defense.
The defense complained that the sheriff’s office did not separate the witnesses, so they may have talked about the shooting and created a matching story.
The defense also argued that the witnesses’ testimonies were compromised because the Mexican Consul interrupted the US investigators’ questioning of the immigrants who witnessed the incident. This led to the charge that the Consul coached them prior to giving statements to the US investigators.
The Mexican government provided food, clothing and lodging for the witnesses, and arranged for visas. This, said the defense, unfairly influenced their testimonies.
According to transcripts read at the trial, Oscar de la Torre Amezcua, Mexican consular general in Douglas, told the three witnesses that, "It’s very important for us, like I told you, that the policeman doesn’t get out of this clean."
Investigators also left behind a pair of gloves worn by Dominguez that would prove forensically that he was holding a rock, instead of having “clean hands,” as described by the defense.
Prosecutors say their case is solid and substantiated by physical evidence, forensic evidence, and a surveillance video. They will introduce evidence at the second trial that suggests the agent had anger issues, and allegedly had a pattern of assaulting people and threatening to kill them.
The second trial is set for April 22, 2008. If convicted, Corbett could face 22 years in prison.
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