Thread: Murder trial begins in AZ for illegal immigrant shooting

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Sierra Vista Herald
Nicholas Corbett


Mistrial Declared In Border Agent's Case

POSTED: 4:08 pm MST March 7, 2008
UPDATED: 4:45 pm MST March 7, 2008


TUCSON, Ariz. -- A mistrial has been declared in the case of a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with fatally shooting an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Jurors had been deliberating since late Tuesday before declaring themselves deadlocked.

The shooting happened Jan. 12, 2007, after Agent Nicholas Corbett stopped the victim and three others in the desert between Bisbee and Douglas, near the U.S.-Mexico line, according to The Arizona Daily Star.

Corbett, 40, claimed he shot Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, in self defense after Dominguez raised his arm to throw a rock at him.

Corbett is more than a foot taller than Dominguez was.

Dominguez's two brothers and a girlfriend of one of the brothers testified that Corbett shot Dominguez as the immigrant was kneeling to surrender.

Prosecutors relied on ballistics, medical evidence and a video of the incident taken from a great distance to support that testimony, according to the Star.

Corbett was charged with second-degree murder, negligent homicide and manslaughter. Jurors can convict on only one count.

The trial lasted a week before deliberations began.

The case was unusual because was tried in federal court by state prosecutors using Arizona law.



Sierra Vista Herald
Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera

http://www.kpho.com/news/15530738/detail.html

Legal Teams On Both Sides Plot Strategies For Next Trial In Border Shooting

By Jim Becker, KOLD News 13 Reporter
Posted 3-10-08

Even though prosecutors are frustrated surveillance video, forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony were not enough to convict a border patrol agent in a shooting death, they say they can do even better with the next trial.

Federal District Judge David Bury declared a mistrial Friday, March 7, after jurors told him they could not reach a unanimous decision on Nicholas Corbett's guilt, after 23 hours of deliberation.

Corbett is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the shooting death of 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez January 12, 2007.

Dominguez was among a group of seven illegal border crossers, who split up when confronted by border patrol agents that afternoon.

Agent Corbett detained three, then went after the other four, Dominguez, his two brothers, and a girlfriend of the elder brother.

Corbett claims he stopped his vehicle, got out, and confronted Dominguez, who was holding a rock.

However, when investigators failed to locate a shell casing where they felt it should have fallen after a shooting, and instead found it next to Dominguez' head, they began to believe eyewitness accounts, that Corbett approached Dominguez from behind, either struck or grabbed him with one hand, while the gun was in his other hand, finger on the trigger.

Defense attorney Sean Chapman refuses to divulge any strategies for the next trial, but wishes the jury could have resolved the case in Corbett's favor, rather than force the process to continue.

Chapman argued because Cochise County Sheriff's investigators initially failed to treat the shooting as a crime investigation, a point conceded by Woods, crucial forensic evidence that could have cleared Corbett was lost.

Prosecutors, though, maintain what forensic evidence there is backs up the eyewitness testimony, not Corbett's story, and add they will introduce evidence they were unable to present to the jury in the last trial.

They say they will bring witnesses, who will vouch for Dominguez' character.

"All of the information that we have on this young man is that he was a fine young man," said Grant Woods, special prosecutor in the trial.

Woods also says prosecutors will present information they got late in the course of the trial, information Judge Bury would not allow the jury to hear.

According to Woods, Corbett has had a history of anger issues, and was arrested for assault in Pennsylvania four years ago and in the past year has had the police called on him four times in the Phoenix area.

For prosecutors, though, the key to this case is demonstrating no one is above the law, no matter the perpetrator and no matter the victim.

"In this country, the government stood up for the human rights of someone who was here illegally, and they stood up against someone in law enforcement, as difficult as that is, because it was the right thing to do," said Woods.

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=7994857