US agent on trial in cross-border killing of Mexican teen
TUCSON, Ariz. — A rare murder trial of a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with shooting into Mexico in 2012 and killing a teenager started Tuesday with jury selection.
U.S. District Judge Raner Collins told the 11-woman, five-man panel that opening statements were set for Wednesday morning.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona, comes amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometre) U.S.-Mexico border.
Lonnie Swartz has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez. The teenager was on a street in Nogales, in the Mexican state of Sonora, just across the border from Nogales, Arizona.