A federal judge says a Border Patrol agent charged in the shooting death of a Mexican teen across the international boundary cannot be cross-examined about his military record.
U.S. District Court Judge Raner C. Collins ruled Thursday the Army service and personnel records of Lonnie Ray Swartz are more than 10 years old.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for Arizona filed the motion last week objecting to a defense move to exclude Swartz's military and job performance records, which include a desertion arrest.
Swartz has pleaded not guilty to one charge of second-degree murder in the 2012 death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez of Mexico. He is accused of firing through a border fence from Nogales, Arizona, into Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, in 2012 and killing the youth.
