Brother Was Killed : Mexican Man Guilty in Shoot-Out at Border

A 23-year-old Mexican man was found guilty Thursday of robbery and attempted murder in a May 4 shoot-out in the border canyons that left his brother dead and a Border Patrol agent wounded.

Jaime Arroyo Zaragoza was convicted by a Superior Court jury that deliberated for less than one day. Arroyo faces a jail sentence as long as 17 years when he returns for sentencing on Nov. 21.

He was convicted on single counts of conspiracy to rob illegal aliens as they traveled north and the attempted murder of agent Fred Stevens, who police say was shot five times by Julio Arroyo Zaragoza, Jaime’s brother. Stevens, 39, was saved by an armored vest and is back on duty. Julio Arroyo, 33, died when a 9-millimeter bullet struck him in the middle of the forehead, at the hairline.

Jose Tafolla, Jaime Arroyo’s attorney, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the verdict. Tafolla chose not to present any defense witnesses during the three-day trial.

“I still don’t think there was enough evidence to convict based on this trial,” Tafolla said. “Possibly, the jury was influenced a lot by certain items placed on exhibit by the prosecution, like the vest and the X-rays” of Stevens’ wounds.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Williams called the verdict “very just.” But Williams expressed bitterness about newspaper coverage of the case.

The case stirred international controversy in August, when Tafolla and defense pathologist Hormez Guard charged that Julio Arroyo had been shot at point-blank range by police. A police report said that Arroyo was shot from a distance of 30 feet to 40 feet. A county autopsy report by pathologist David Katsuyama noted “several stellate disruptions”--star-shaped lacerations--extending from the fatal wound.

Several pathologists told The Times that stellate disruptions are often indicative of a contact wound, a wound suffered when the barrel of a gun is placed on the skin or very near to it. But Coroner David Stark said later that the lacerations were not stellate disruptions and said the county autopsy report supported the police version of the shooting.

Arroyo’s body was exhumed Aug. 26 from a Tijuana cemetery. Tijuana Coroner Gustavo Salazar performed a second autopsy and reported that Arroyo died of a contact wound. Guard, a former county pathologist who is now a critic of the coroner’s office, concurred when he analyzed tests performed on tissue samples taken from around the fatal wound.

However, Guard’s findings were contradicted by county pathologists, who conducted independent tests of the same tissue samples. Guard reportedly found traces of gunpowder around the wound, but county pathologists said the gunpowder was dirt.

On Thursday, Williams said there was never any “shred of sensible evidence of a contact wound.”

“It’s apparent to everyone, except for a couple of people, that there never was grounds for the allegation. It wasn’t fair or sensible journalism. It was outrageous and really terrible that such an assertion would have been made against the officers,” Williams said.

Although the criminal matter in the case has been resolved, Tafolla and attorney Daniel Gallardo said they will now file a $10-million civil suit against the city and police. In an earlier $10-million claim filed on behalf of Arroyo’s wife, four children and mother, Gallardo charged that police executed the bandit and the county coroner botched the autopsy. The city has rejected the claim on grounds that it was filed more than 100 days after the incident.

Tafolla said forensic specialists who were hired to work on the civil case are conducting sophisticated tests on evidence taken from the guns used by officers involved in the shooting. He declined to discuss the findings but said some of the tests dispute the police version of the shooting and suggest that Arroyo was shot at point-blank range.