The seventh and final man charged in the killing of a Border Patrol agent near Nogales in 2010 has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
As part of his guilty plea, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, from Sinaloa, Mexico, admitted he was one of several armed bandits who traveled from Mexico to the U.S. to hunt for marijuana smugglers to rob, a news release from the Department of Justice said. Favela-Astorga was sentenced Wednesday.
At that time of the shootout, Agent Brian Terry and other members of a tactical unit were on extended deployment in the Arizona desert to try and catch such robbery crews.
On Dec. 14, 2010, Terry and his team attempted to arrest Favela-Astorga’s crew in a rural area north of Nogales when a member of the crew fired at the agents, hitting Terry in the back
Terry called out to a fellow agent, “Willie, I’m hit! I can’t feel my legs,” according to evidence presented at prior trials. Although agents were still under fire, they tried to save Terry, but their attempts were unsuccessful.
The five bandits were armed with four AK-47 style assault rifles and an AR-15 assault rifle, the news release said.
After the murder, Favela-Astorga and the others fled back to Mexico. Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, who was left behind after he had been shot in the stomach by agents, was convicted and sentenced in 2014 to 30 years in prison after he identified the other members of the robbery crew, the news release said.
Favela-Astorga was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2017 based on a provisional arrest warrant issued at the request of the U.S. and was extradited in January 2020.
Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, Ivan Soto-Barraza and Jesus Lionel Sanchez-Meza, the other members of the crew, were all arrested in Mexico years after the shooting.
Soto-Barraza and Sanchez-Meza were extradited to the U.S. in 2014, convicted at trial in December 2015 and sentenced to life in prison, the news release said. Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes was extradited to the U.S. in 2018, convicted at trial in February 2019 and also sentenced to life in prison.
Although Roasrio Rafael Burboa-Alvarez was not there the night of the shooting, he also pleaded guilty to murder after admitting he recruited the crew members in Mexico. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Two days before the fatal shooting, Rito Osorio-Arellanes was arrested by agents on immigration charges, unaware that he was part of the robbery crew, the news release said. Osorio pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
