Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett, who is accused of killing an illegal entrant, leaves Cochise County Justice Court in Bisbee as members of the Border Action Network protest in the background. Members of the Border Patrol also were present at the hearing to lend their support to Corbett.

photos by kelly presnell / arizona daily star

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BISBEE — A preliminary hearing to decide if a Border Patrol agent should be charged with murder for fatally shooting a Mexican man just north of the border has been delayed until Aug. 6.

Sean Chapman, a Tucson attorney representing agent Nicholas Corbett, asked Bisbee Justice of the Peace David Morales for a continuance Friday because he had not received transcripts of the final two interviews of three key witnesses — two brothers and a sister-in-law of the victim, Francisco Javier Domínguez Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico.

Chapman called the lack of disclosure "outrageous" and reminded the judge that Corbett is a federal agent who puts his life on the line every day and deserves a fair trial.

"In order to let him have a full and fair hearing we need the benefit of seeing what they said because they are all over the map," Chapman said after Friday's court session. "They are totally inconsistent about what happened."

Gerald Till, Cochise County deputy county attorney, argued that his office had given the defense everything required and more, but Morales still granted the continuance.

Till wouldn't comment, but Peter A. Schey, a Los Angeles attorney representing Domínguez Rivera's parents and the three witnesses — brothers René Domínguez Rivera, 21, and Jorge Domínguez Rivera, 24, and the victim's sister-in-law, Sandra Vidal Guzmán, 20 — said he has no problem with the judge's decision.

"We fully support the complete and thorough protection of Mr. Corbett's rights in these proceedings in hopes that it will lead to finality one way or the other," said Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in L.A.

Corbett, 39, was charged on April 23 with four counts of homicide in the Jan. 12 shooting death of Domínguez Rivera about 150 yards north of the border, between Bisbee and Douglas. The shooting happened while Corbett was trying to detain Domínguez Rivera and his brothers and sister-in-law who had entered the country illegally.

Corbett, a native of Pennsylvania, returned to full duty three days after the shooting before being relegated to administrative work on April 24 after the charges were filed. He joined the Border Patrol in June 2003 at the age of 36, just one year under the age limit for agency.

Corbett served on active duty with the U.S. Marines as an infantryman from March 1986 to March 1990, finishing his service with a rank of corporal, said 1st Lt. Brian P. Donnelly, a public affairs officer with the Marines in Quantico, Va. He then served with the Marine Reserve as a field artilleryman from June 1995 to June 1998, finishing with a rank of lance corporal. He was reduced in rank for unsatisfactory drill attendance, military records show.

Corbett won an overseas service ribbon as a Marine, but he was not in combat, Donnelly said.

About 25 people packed into the small courtroom Friday for the closely watched case. Corbett sat in a suit and tie at a table next to Chapman and his other attorney, Daniel Santander, while the three key Mexican witnesses sat in the front row flanked by Schey and officials from the Mexican Consulate.

A number of Border Patrol agents attended to support Corbett and stood chatting with him in the parking lot as Border Action Network members held signs such as "Rights for all," and "Not one more death on the border" behind them.

Brandon Judd, vice president of Local 2544, the Arizona Chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, applauded the judge's decision and said it doesn't surprise him some of the missing transcripts come from the Mexican Consulate. Judd has previously accused the consulate of having access to the witnesses before Cochise County sheriff's investigators, and influencing testimony.

"Now, all of the sudden they don't have the transcripts from the Mexican Consulate interview?" Judd said. "One and one always equals two. It never equals three."

Officials with the Mexican Consulate and Cochise County Sheriffs Office have denied the accusations. Consulate officials at the hearing declined to comment.

Read Brady McCombs' border blog "Working the Line" at go.azstarnet.com/borderblog.