Lawyers spar in advance of Border Agent retrial
September 30th, 2008 @ 12:56pm
by Associated Press

A federal judge is considering whether jurors in the retrial of a Border Patrol agent accused of fatally shooting an illegal immigrant should be told of allegations that he had a history of assault and making racist remarks.

Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the 2007 shooting of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera. Dominguez and three others were crossing the southern Arizona desert when Corbett drove up, got out and ended up firing the fatal shot.

Prosecutors said the shooting was not justified. Corbett said he fired in self-defense, claiming Dominguez tried to smash his skull with a rock.

Corbett was tried on the charges in March, but the jury deadlocked. His retrial is scheduled to start Oct. 21.

Lawyers for both sides appeared in federal court in Tucson on Monday. Special prosecutor Grant Woods said he wants to introduce testimony from a former neighbor of Corbett in Pennsylvania who has knowledge of his ``racial hatred of Mexicans.'' He also asked Judge David Bury to also allow evidence of an alleged 2003 assault on a man in Cheltenham, Pa., and three incidents of domestic violence in 2007 in Arizona.

Defense attorney Sean Chapman called the former neighbor ``a racist,'' ``a thug'' and ``a liar.'' Chapman said Corbett, on the other hand, is ``not a racist.'' He also said the domestic violence incidents did not result in charges and took place after the shooting, so they should not be allowed as evidence.

Bury said he will rule ``soon'' on whether the evidence can be used at trial.

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