A Border Patrol agent has been convicted of kidnapping a Mexican teenager outside an Arizona school and raping her for hours in his apartment.
Federal prosecutors have said Aaron Thomas Mitchell, 29, approached the 15-year-old girl wearing a tactical vest labeled “Police” as she waited for classes to start at a high school in the Arizona border town of Douglas on April 25, 2022. Tucson Sentinel report.
He then asked for her papers and ordered the teenager to get into his car. Court records Obtained by the Arizona Daily Independent It shows that the teenager crossed the border daily from Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico, to Douglas to attend classes.
Mitchell allegedly told the teen he would take her to a local police station, but instead stopped just a few miles from her school and handcuffed her hands and feet.
He then told her “to do whatever he said because he didn’t want to have to hurt her,” the girl testified in a two-week trial. according to the Miami Herald.
Aaron Thomas Mitchell, 29, was found guilty Friday of kidnapping a Mexican teenager outside an Arizona school and raping her for hours in his apartment.
The two eventually arrived at Mitchell’s apartment in Sierra Vista, and he forced the girl inside and raped her repeatedly over several hours.
At one point, the girl said she was given alcohol before Mitchell drove her back to Douglas, according to the Arizona Daily Independent.
He then reminded her “not to tell anyone,” prosecutors said.
But the girl “immediately” reported the attack to her friends, family and law enforcement. ABC 15 reports.
His description of Mitchell’s apartment and the Border Patrol agent’s unique physical characteristics led to his arrest that same night.
During an interview with police, Mitchell “exclaimed that the victim ‘better hope I don’t get out of here,'” prosecutors said.
A subsequent investigation also found that Mitchell conducted several online searches on his phone about rape and “how to stop someone from screaming” while the girl was in his apartment.
He also searched for ‘how long does it take to suffocate someone’.
Surveillance footage showed him approaching the girl outside a high school in Douglas on April 25, 2022.
Mitchell was then charged with 18 felonies ranging from kidnapping, obstructing a criminal investigation and multiple counts of sexual abuse and sexual assault. according to the Daily Independent.
Other court records show the Cochise County District Attorney’s Office obtained a court order at the time requiring Mitchell to undergo testing for several STDs.
That same July, a federal grand jury also indicted him on one count of kidnapping a minor.
He later turned himself in to federal authorities in Miami, Florida, where his parents, both retired police officers, live.
A federal jury ultimately found him guilty Friday of deprivation of rights under color of law and kidnapping of a minor.
The jury also found that his conduct included aggravated sexual abuse, kidnapping and resulted in bodily injury.
Mitchell was a Customs and Border Protection agent for less than a year before the incident.
Deputy Attorney General Kristen Clarke applauded the decision, calling Mitchell’s actions “egregious.”
She said he “had a duty to protect his community, but instead abused his power, kidnapped, handcuffed and restrained a young woman and repeatedly sexually assaulted her in his apartment for hours.”
“With this verdict, the jury has done us all a great service by holding this former federal law enforcement officer accountable,” he said.
Mitchell, who had been a Customs and Border Protection agent for less than a year, now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 20, but his defense attorney, Laura Udall, said they will “file an appeal of this conviction.”
