Mexican sentenced to 30 years in death of Border Patrol agent in Fast and Furious
Mexican man sentenced to 30 years in death of Border Patrol agent in Fast and Furious case
- Article by: ASTRID GALVAN , Associated Press
- Updated: February 10, 2014 - 4:40 PM
TUCSON, Ariz. — A man convicted in the shooting death of a federal Border Patrol agent during a firefight that revealed the government's botched gun-smuggling investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison.
Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, who is from El Fuerte in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, is the only person to be convicted in the Dec. 14, 2010, shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry near the Arizona-Mexico border.
U.S. District Court Judge David C. Bury handed down the sentence after Terry's mother tearfully recounted the pain she has endured since losing her son.
"Brian is my hero," Josephine Terry said. "He was a dedicated American. He would always say, 'This is the best country in the world, Mom.'"
Bury asked Osorio-Arellanes if he wanted to speak, but he initially declined through his attorney, Clay Hernandez. Hernandez said the defendant did not feel he had the proper education to speak and felt extremely nervous.
Nudged by the judge, Osorio-Arellanes finally apologized several times in Spanish and reiterated that he too was wounded in the shootout.
Prosecutor Todd Robinson took issue with that statement.
"There is one victim and one victim only," he said. "That is Brian Terry."
The shootout erupted just north of the Arizona border city of Nogales as Osorio-Arellanes and four other men who are accused of sneaking into the country to rob marijuana smugglers approached Terry and three other agents who were targeting such rip-off crews.
Osorio-Arellanes was the only person arrested at the scene, while four other alleged rip-off crew members fled to Mexico. Two of the four are now in Mexican custody, while two others remain fugitives.
Osorio-Arellanes maintains he was not the shooter who killed Terry, and prosecutors agree that evidence supports his claim. Still, they say he is liable because he was a voluntary participant in the rip-off crew.
Two rifles bought by a gun-smuggling ring that was being monitored in the Fast and Furious investigation were found at the scene of the firefight, though authorities have declined to say whether the murder weapon in Terry's death was linked to a purchase from the investigation.
Federal authorities who conducted Fast and Furious have faced criticism for allowing suspected straw gun buyers for a smuggling ring to walk away from gun shops in Arizona with weapons, rather than arrest them and seize the guns. Agents allowed the purchase of 2,000 guns, but they then lost track of more than 1,400 of them. Some of the guns purchased illegally with the government's knowledge were later found at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States.
The guilty plea by Osorio-Arellanes in October 2012 marked the biggest conviction to date in a case that embarrassed the federal government and prompted a series of congressional investigations. Members of the gun-smuggling ring that was being monitored in the Fast and Furious investigation have pleaded guilty to federal charges.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/...244690531.html
Mexican man gets 30 years in killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
By Cindy Carcamo
February 10, 2014, 7:11 p.m.
Los Angeles Times
http://www.trbimg.com/img-52f99331/t...g-20140210/525
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, shown in an undated photo, was killed in a December 2010 shootout that led to the unraveling of the failed federal gun-tracking operation called Fast and Furious. (U.S. Customs and Border Patrol / November 20, 2007)
TUCSON — A Mexican man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday for Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's slaying, which led to the unraveling of the failed federal gun-tracking operation known as Fast and Furious.
Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, 37, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in October 2012 in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, apologized in court.
"I regret what happened, sir," Osorio-Arellanes told the judge in Spanish. "I too was hurt. I don't know what else to say. Please forgive me."
He was part of a group of bandits who engaged in a shootout with Terry and three other Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona, just south of Tucson, in December 2010. Terry, 40, was a member of the U.S. Border Patrol's elite tactical unit that had been working the area for several nights, a few miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
During the confrontation, the bandits scattered toward Mexico, but Osorio-Arellanes was shot in the torso and unable to run. Agents discovered a live round in the chamber of the rifle he was carrying and 24 more in the magazine. He also had another magazine on him loaded with more rounds.
Two weapons recovered from the shooting scene were traced to the Fast and Furious operation led by the Phoenix field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That triggered the unraveling of the operation and one of the biggest controversies of President Obama's first term.
At Monday's hearing, Terry's mother, Josephine Terry, told U.S. District Judge David Bury her family had suffered through the worst years of their lives. "I will never hear the words, 'I love you, Mom,'" she said.
"Brian is my hero," Josephine Terry said. "Brian was a dedicated American. He would always say this was the best country in the world."
Brian Terry's sister Michelle Terry-Balogh told the judge: "The pain will never go away. Where is the justice in that? Let me answer that; there is none."
Her brother's absence has been felt during touchstones of their lives, she said, including her daughter's wedding. "My parents both have holes in their hearts that will never be repaired."
Osorio-Arellanes' wife and sisters attended the hearing but did not speak. Afterward, they rushed out of the courthouse and declined to talk with reporters.
The judge said Osorio-Arellanes would be imprisoned in an Arizona facility so he could be close to his family. After he has served his sentence, Osorio-Arellanes is to be deported and banned from the U.S.
The search continues for the rest of the bandits.
Fast and Furious was intended to encourage gun dealers to sell thousands of illegal firearms so the ATF could track the buyers to Mexican drug cartels. Most of the firearms vanished, however, and several have been found at crime scenes on both sides of the border.
The ensuing scandal drove out the head of the ATF and left Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over records to a House committee.
Monday's events were a long time coming, said Robert Heyer, Terry's cousin and chairman of the Brian Terry Foundation.
"We do not celebrate this sentence today," he said after the hearing. "But we do acknowledge justice."
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...#axzz2syz2Rw6d
