Mistrial declared for border agent charged in shooting of Mexican teen
Apr 23, 2018, 5:28 PM | Updated: 10:50 pm
FILE - In this March 21, 2018, file photo, Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz, left, makes his way to the U.S. District Court building in downtown Tucson, Ariz. (Ron Medvescek/Arizona Daily Star via AP, File)
(Ron Medvescek/Arizona Daily Star via AP, File)
PHOENIX — A mistrial was declared Monday for a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was on trial for allegedly shooting across the border and killing a 16-year-old in 2012.
Judge Raner Collins declared the mistrial in Tucson after jurors acquitted Lonnie Swartz of a second-degree murder charge in the killing of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.
Swartz had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Defense attorneys argued that Swartz was justified to use lethal force after Rodriguez started lobbing stones from Mexico and fired to protect himself, other border agents and police officers on the U.S. side in Nogales, Arizona.
But prosecutors countered that Swartz “was fed up with being rocked,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Heath Kleindienst, who noted the agent had been targeted in at least six or seven other rock-throwing attacks.
“He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence,” he said.
Defense attorney Sean Chapman argued there was “not a scintilla of evidence that he was angry, that he was fed up.”
He said that Swartz shot because “he was trying to protect himself and his fellow agents during the course of a drug operation.”
Swartz fired 16 shots late on Oct. 10, 2012, through a 20-foot fence that sits on an embankment above Mexico’s Calle Internacional, a street lined with homes and small businesses.
An autopsy showed the unarmed teen was shot 10 times, eight times in the back part of his body and twice in the head.
The killing was felt deeply in the twin communities of Nogales, where about 20,000 people live on the Arizona side and about 300,000 in Mexico.
The communities are linked by family members, trade and culture and have long been referred to locally as “Ambos Nogales” — “Both Nogales” in Spanish.
Swartz pleaded not guilty after being indicted by a federal grand jury in 2015 and was free on his own recognizance. The Border Patrol has not said if he is receiving his salary.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says it’s evaluating whether to pursue a retrial.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
