On October 19 Rosario Burboa-Alvarez was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his part in the December 14, 2010 murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Burboa-Alvarez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in August and was thereby spared the death penalty.
According to The Arizona Daily Star, Burboa-Alvarez “was a recruiter for the ‘rip crew’ accused of killing [Terry].” His job was to “[recruit] 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.”
Border Patrol Agent William Castano was with Terry on the night of December 14, 2010 and previously described the events surrounding Terry’s death. According to the Associated Press, Castano said both he and Terry yelled “policia” upon spotting the rip crew. They fired beanbags at rip crew members and “a gunfight” broke out. In the course of the gunfight Terry was shot in the back and succumbed to his wounds.
Burboa-Alvarez was not physically with the rip crew on the night of Terry’s death, but prosecutor’s still labeled him a “co-conspirator” because members of the rip crew for which he recruited “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.”
Burboa-Alvarez is one of seven men who have been charged in the death of Terry, five of whom have been sentenced to prison. Two of the seven–Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga and Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes–are still at large.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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