Jury Backs Officer in Border Slaying

A U. S. District Court jury Wednesday rejected a claim that a Mexican citizen was wrongly killed by a San Diego police officer assigned to a special task force that patrols the U. S.-Mexico border.

The jury unanimously ruled in favor of Cesar Solis, a San Diego police officer and the sole remaining defendant in a multimillion-dollar civil suit filed by the family of Julio Arroyo Zaragoza. The verdict, reached after about two hours of deliberations, followed 4 1/2 days of proceedings before U. S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr.

The case generated considerable controversy in 1985, particularly when charges emerged that Arroyo was the victim of an “execution-style” shooting. San Diego authorities maintained that the shooting was justified.

Arroyo, a former police officer in Mexico who San Diego police contended was an armed border bandit, was shot and killed May 4, 1985, during a confrontation just north of the border between alleged bandits and the Border Crime Prevention Unit. The unit, which attempts to deter crime against illegal aliens, is composed of San Diego police officers and U. S. Border Patrol agents.

Fred Stevens, a Border Patrol officer who was a member of the unit that evening, was shot five times in the confrontation. He survived the encounter, thanks to a bulletproof vest, officials said.

Arroyo’s brother, Jaime, who survived the shoot-out, was convicted of attempted robbery and attempted murder in the incident and is serving a nine-year sentence at Soledad State Prison.

Arroyo’s family, through San Diego attorney Jose E. Tafolla, maintained that Arroyo was working that evening as an alien smuggler and was slain by police after he was in custody. Police said Arroyo was killed during the shoot-out.

No decision has been made on a possible appeal, Tafolla said afterward.