The recruiter for the βrip crewβ accused of killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010 was sentenced to 27 years in prison Monday.
Rosario Burboa-Alvarez pleaded guilty in August to first-degree murder. As part of the plea agreement, he wasnβt going to face the death penalty.
After the hearing, Burboa-Alvarezβs attorney asked the judge to recommend that he serve his time in a facility in Southern California so he could be close to his family.
The request wasnβt made during the the sentencing proceedings in Tucsonβs federal district court because Burboa-Alvarez fainted onto the floor, according to court documents.
Burboa-Alvarez, originally from Sinaloa, was in charge of recruiting people to cross into the United States by foot, grab caches of food and firearms hidden on this side of the border, and rob marijuana smugglers. He would then pay them upon their return to Mexico.
He pleaded guilty to assembling the armed crew that ran into Border Patrol agents near Rio Rico the night of Dec. 14, 2010, and fatally shot Terry.
The government argued that even though Burboa-Alvarez was in Mexico when Terry was killed, he was a co-conspirator in the robbery. Thatβs because they were armed in order to steal from the smugglers, making it foreseeable that a shootout with law enforcement like the one that killed Terry could happen.
The 30-year sentencing recommendation was leveled in part to serve as a deterrent, court documents show.
βThe sentence imposed must make clear to others that there is no excuse or justification for refusing to yield to law enforcement or for the unconscionable decision to kill a law enforcement officer in an effort to evade capture,β the governmentβs attorneys said.
Burboa-Alvarez, 31, was the seventh man charged in the slaying at the center of a scandal over a botched U.S. gun-smuggling probe known as Operation Fast and Furious.
The case sparked national controversy when it became known that two guns found at the scene were sold by a Phoenix-area dealer to a suspect involved in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation, in which the federal agency lost track of about 2,000 guns.
On Oct. 1, a jury convicted Lionel Portillo-Meza and Ivan Soto-Barraza of all charges, including first-degree murder.
Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, who was shot during the gunfight, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in February 2014 for first-degree murder. His brother, Rito Osorio-Arellanes, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery since he was not at the scene and was sentenced to eight years in prison in January 2013.
Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga and Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes remain at large.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect a 27-year-sentence. A previous version had 24 years.
