By Curt Prendergast Arizona Daily Star
Curt Prendergast

Aug 2, 2018 Updated 6 min ago


Brian A. Terry
Courtesy: U.S. Customs and Border Protection


The day after he was taken into custody by the FBI in Mexico City, a suspect in the 2010 fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent pleaded not guilty before a judge in Tucson.

Heraclio Osorio Arellanes could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of nine counts, including first-degree murder.

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was fatally shot in December 2010 after he and other Border Patrol agents came across a “rip crew,” a gang of bandits who rob smugglers, north of Nogales. Osorio Arellanes is accused of being one of five members of the “rip crew.”

Seven men were indicted on charges including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault of a federal officer. Five men were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and one is awaiting extradition from Mexico.

On Wednesday, Osorio Arellanes stood in U.S. District Court in Tucson with close-cropped hair and a short beard while wearing a gray Adidas sweatshirt and tan jeans. He listened to Magistrate Judge Eric J. Markovich through a headset that allowed him to hear the Spanish-language interpreter.

Markovich ordered that Osorio Arellanes remain in custody while he waits for his trial, scheduled for Sept. 11.

Terry joined the Border Patrol in 2007 and worked with the agency’s tactical unit in the Nogales area. Before joining the Border Patrol, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and as a police officer in his home state of Michigan, according to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Brian’s family and the Brian Terry Foundation are grateful for the continued work and cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments in bringing Brian’s killers to justice,” Ralph Terry, uncle to Brian Terry and president of the Brian Terry Foundation, said in a prepared statement.

“Despite the years that have passed it is comforting to know that law enforcement on both sides of the border remain committed to tracking down and prosecuting the people who murdered Brian. Their efforts do indeed honor his memory,” Ralph Terry said in the statement.

The possibility of the death penalty was waived in order to extradite Osorio Arellanes from Mexico, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Robinson said after the arraignment.


The prosecution is using the felony murder theory of the shooting, Robinson said, meaning no individual member of the alleged rip crew is charged with being the shooter but all are held responsible for the fatal shooting.

Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of California are handling the prosecution. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona was recused.

A national controversy erupted after two guns found at the scene of the shooting were connected to a botched operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The guns were among about 2,000 that were sold in Arizona to people suspected of supplying them to drug traffickers in Mexico.

Osorio Arellanes was extradited from Mexico on Tuesday. While in the custody of FBI agents, he traveled through Houston to Tucson, CBP said in the statement. CBP officers and Border Patrol agents helped guard Osorio Arellanes during the three-hour layover before his flight to Arizona.

His April 2017 arrest came after the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP provided “critical information” to Mexican law enforcement, CBP said.

Two men accused in the fatal shooting, Lionel Portillo Meza and Ivan Soto Barraza, were convicted by a jury in Tucson of all charges, including first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

The recruiter of the rip crew, Rosario Burboa Alvarez, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced in 2015 to 27 years in prison.

Manuel Osorio Arellanes was sentenced in 2014 to 30 years in prison on a first-degree murder charge. His brother, Rito Osorio Arellanes, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. He was not at the scene of the shooting and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2013.

The final suspect, Jesus Rosario Favela Astorga, was arrested by Mexican authorities in October 2017. His extradition to the United States is pending.

https://tucson.com/news/local/suspec...8efe3cf7d.html