More than a decade ago, the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent brought attention to the botched "Fast and Furious" operation.
The scheme involved tracing the paths of firearms as they made their way through criminal organizations. Last week, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction and life sentence of one man involved in the agent’s killing.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the convictions of Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, saying his constitutional due process rights had been violated, and sent the case back to the U.S. District Court in Arizona for further proceedings.
Osorio-Arellanes was sentenced in 2020 in the Dec. 14, 2010, fatal shooting of Agent Brian Terry while he was on a mission in Arizona.
Osorio-Arellanes was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges after being extradited from Mexico. He was among seven defendants who were tried and convicted in Terry’s killing.
Ralph Terry says his 40-year-old nephew's shooting death in the line of duty was tragic to begin with.
And then his family found out that a failed government gun walking scheme put some weapons found at the scene into the hands of the so-called "rip crew" Brian Terry was after.
“‘Fast and Furious’ was a debacle,” said Ralph Terry. “It was ill-conceived and even worse in its application.”
But when a federal court recently found that one of the men's 6th Amendment right was violated, his conviction was overturned.
“The Terry family stands by the rule of law, and we will honor that,” Ralph Terry said. “We fully expect and hope that the district court will retry the felon, find him guilty, keep him in prison for first-degree murder for the rest of his life.”
He and the rest of Brian Terry’s family were shocked by the decision, but confident in what happened that night.
“I’ve said many times, you know, when he picked up that weapon, he knew exactly what it would do,” said Ralph Terry. “And when he put the bullets in that magazine, he knew exactly what those bullets would do. And when he put that magazine in that weapon, he knew what that weapon would do. When he pointed that weapon at Brian, he was seriously knowing what he would do. And when he pulled that trigger, he clearly knew what he was doing.”
The family’s focus now, he said, is on preserving Brian Terry’s legacy by supporting young people and the families of other fallen border agents through the nonprofit foundation in his name.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
