A trial for a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with second-degree murder is set to begin as planned on Feb. 26 after a federal judge this week denied a request by the agent's lawyers to delay the proceedings.
On Jan. 2, agent Nicholas Corbett's attorney, Sean Chapman, formally requested at least two additional months to prepare for the trial. He cited difficulties in finding and consulting with experts and reviewing more than 1,000 pages of disclosure information from the state.
"The defense needs additional time, however, to consult with these experts prior to disclosure of their opinions," Chapman wrote in the request. "One expert in particular will likely not have a report available for at least a month, possibly more."
He said the prosecutors had been advised and didn't object.
But on Monday, without citing reasons, U.S. District Judge David C. Bury denied the motion. That means Corbett, 40, is set to stand trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide, starting at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 26, at the federal courthouse in Tucson.
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The defense and prosecution said they will be ready for trial.
"We're aware of the judge's decision and we're going to be ready to try the case in February," said Chapman Tuesday.
"We are ready to go to trial," wrote prosecutor Grant Woods in an e-mail. "We look forward to having a jury hear all of the evidence and deliver a verdict."
Woods is a former Arizona attorney general who has been hired by the Cochise County attorney to prosecute the case. Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer told county supervisors that the retirement of two senior attorneys and the loss of a prosecutor prompted the hiring of outside prosecutors.
Along with Woods, the Cochise County attorney hired attorney Tyrone Mitchell, a former state and federal prosecutor now in private practice, and private investigator Lee Rappleyea, a former president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Arizona, to help in the prosecution of Corbett.
The case stems from a shooting near the U.S.-Mexican border in Cochise County on Jan. 12, 2007. On that day, Corbett shot and killed Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico, about 150 yards north of the border, between Bisbee and Douglas. The shooting occurred while Corbett was trying to detain Domínguez Rivera, his two brothers and the girlfriend of one of the brothers, all of whom had entered the country illegally.
Corbett, who pleaded not guilty, hasn't spoken publicly about the incident but told supervisory Border Patrol agents that night that he shot in self-defense when Domínguez threatened him with a rock.
Domínguez's relatives testified in the preliminary hearing that Corbett fired while pushing Domínguez to the ground, without provocation.
Judge Bury's ruling is his second consecutive denial of a request made by the defense. On Dec. 17 at a pretrial conference, Bury denied a motion from Corbett's attorneys to exclude the testimony from Domínguez Rivera's two brothers and the girlfriend.
Corbett's attorneys argued that the Mexican government had influenced the three by speaking with them before law enforcement on the night of the shooting, and arranging legal status in order to allow them to remain in the country pending Corbett's trial.
Deputy Cochise County Attorney Gerald Till, who was the prosecutor on the case until his recent retirement, called the motion "totally without merit." Accusations that the Mexican Consulate spoke to the three witnesses before Cochise County investigators were false, and the competency of the three wasn't an issue, he said at the time.
