A Border Patrol agent has been found guilty of kidnapping a teenage Mexican girl outside of 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 in his a tactical vest labeled ‘Police’ as she was waiting for classes to start at a middle school in the Arizona border town of Douglas on April 25, 2022, the Tucson Sentinel reports.
He then ‘asked for her papers,’ and ordered the teenager to get into his car. Court records obtained by the Arizona Daily Independent show the teenager crossed the border daily from Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico to Douglas to attend classes.
Mitchell allegedly told the teen he was driving her to a local police station, but instead pulled over just a few miles from her school and handcuffed her hands and feet.
He then told her ‘to do everything he said because he didn’t want to have to hurt her,’ the girl testified at a two-week-long trial, according to the Miami Herald.
Aaron Thomas Mitchell, 29, was found guilty on Friday of kidnapping a teenage Mexican girl outside of 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 multiple times 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 assault to her friends, family members and law enforcement agencies, ABC 15 reports.
Her description of Mitchell’s apartment and physical characteristics unique to the Border Patrol agent led to his arrest the same evening.
During an interview with police, Mitchell ‘exclaimed that the victim “better hope I don’t get out of here,”‘ prosecutors said.
An ensuing investigation also found that Mitchell made several online searches on his phone about rape and ‘how to stop someone from screaming’ while the girl was at his apartment.
He also searched ‘how long does it take to smother someone.’
Surveillance footage showed him approaching the girl outside a middle 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 Attorney’s Office obtained a court order at the time requiring Mitchell to undergo testing for various STDs.
That July, a federal grand jury also indicted him on one count of kidnapping a minor.
He then turned himself over to federal authorities in Miami, Florida, where his parents – both retired cops – live.
A federal jury finally found him guilty on Friday of deprivation of rights under the color of law and kidnapping of a minor.
The jury also ruled 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
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke applauded the decision, calling Mitchell’s actions ‘heinous.’
She said he ‘had a duty to protect his community, but instead he abused his power, kidnapped, cuffed and restrained a young girl and repeatedly sexually assaulted her in his apartment for hours.
‘With this verdict, the jury has done us all a great service by holding accountable this former federal law enforcement official,’ she said.
Mitchell – who had been a Customs and Border Protection agent for less than a year -is now facing 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 be filing an appeal of this conviction.’