Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett enters courthouse in Tucson for pretrial hearing on his lawyer's request to have all charges dismissed against him. The federal judge denied the motions Monday.

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The trial of a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused in the death of an illegal entrant last year will begin today, after a federal judge rejected several requests to dismiss charges.

Nicholas Corbett is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the killing of Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera in January of 2007.

Corbett's lead attorney, Sean Chapman, had filed two motions to dismiss charges. The first motion cited case law that says prosecutors must prove federal law enforcement officers have acted outside of what is required for them to protect themselves while doing their jobs.

The second motion centered on a pair of gloves Domínguez Rivera was wearing when Corbett shot him. Corbett has claimed Domínguez Rivera threatened him with a rock, prompting the shooting. While Domínguez Rivera was wearing gloves, they were taken off by law enforcement at the crime scene and then left behind.

Chapman argued the gloves could have potentially been examined by a forensics expert to show Domínguez Rivera was holding a rock. He also said investigators used the fact that Domínguez Rivera had "clean hands" to show he hadn't been holding a rock — statements that led to charges being filed. And when the gloves were found at the scene months later, damaged by weather, investigators refused to collect them.

"The gloves were not collected as evidence in the case," he said.

But attorney Grant Woods, a former state attorney general who has been hired by the Cochise County attorney to prosecute the case, said the fact that the gloves were forgotten at the scene was immaterial.

Domínguez Rivera had spent the day hiking through the desert, touching the ground and climbing over hills, he said. And when he was shot in the back, his hands fell to the ground, Woods said.

"The victim had been wearing the gloves, trooping around, climbing around this exact area all of that day," Woods said.

Because Chapman didn't have an expert who could testify to the possibility that forensic evidence might have been found on the gloves if they had been collected at the scene, U.S. District Judge David C. Bury agreed with Woods.

He denied the motion to dismiss but said Chapman could question investigators about why the gloves were forgotten.

For the other motion regarding whether Corbett acted beyond his role as a law-enforcement officer, Bury denied it but said the motion could be raised again after prosecutors made their case.

The shooting of Domínguez Rivera has garnered national attention.

On Jan. 12 of last year, Corbett shot and killed the 22-year-old man in the desert between Bisbee and Douglas about 150 yards north of the border.

The shooting occurred while Corbett was trying to detain Domínguez Rivera, his two brothers and the girlfriend of one of the brothers, all of whom had entered the country illegally from Mexico.

While Corbett has said Domínguez Rivera threatened him with a rock, the three family members who witnessed the shooting have offered a different story.

They have said after Corbett stopped them in the desert, he got out of his vehicle holding the gun in his right hand. They say he instructed the group to lie down on the ground and switched the gun to his left hand. While pushing Domínguez Rivera to the ground, the gun fired, they say.

Bury also dismissed a motion by Chapman about testimony describing Domínguez Rivera as a possible violent gang member. Domínguez Rivera had a small tattoo on his hand, which Chapman said was common with gang members, and he wanted to have a witness testify about violence by gang members on the border.

But Bury said the connection is too tenuous.

The trial is scheduled to take two weeks at the longest. Jury selection begins today, with the possibility of opening arguments in the afternoon.