Prosecutor says Border Patrol agent was tired of rock throwing

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have told the jury in the trial of a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with murder that the official shot and killed a teenager across the Mexican border in 2012 because he was tired of people throwing rocks at him from the other side.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Heath Kleindienst said in the government's closing arguments in U.S. District Court on Monday that Agent Lonnie Swartz "was fed up with being rocked. He was angry with those people who had been throwing rocks against the fence."

The prosecutor says that whatever 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez had done that evening, when he threw rocks apparently to distract border agents during a smuggling attempt, "it wasn't a capital crime."

Swartz's lawyers have said he fired in self-defense.

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11:07 a.m.

Lawyers will begin closing arguments late Monday morning at the trial of a U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with murder in the 2012 fatal shooting of a teenager across the Mexican border.

Lonnie Swartz is charged in the death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

The trial began March 20 in federal court in Tucson.

Prosecutors say Swartz fired 16 shots, hitting the teen 10 times including eight times in the back.

Rodriguez was on a street in Nogales in the Mexican state of Sonora, just across the border from Nogales, Arizona.

Swartz says he fired in self-defense after people threw rocks from the Mexico side during a drug-smuggling attempt.

Prosecutors don't dispute the teen was throwing rocks, but contend Swartz responded with an unreasonable amount of force.

10:14 p.m.

Closing arguments are expected this week in the trial of U.S. Border Patrol agent charged in the 2012 fatal shooting of a teenager across the Mexican border.

Lonnie Swartz is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

The trial began March 20 in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

Prosecutors say Swartz fired 16 shots, hitting the teen 10 times including eight times in the back.

Elena Rodriguez was on a street in Nogales in the Mexican state of Sonora, just across the border from Nogales, Arizona.

Swartz says he fired in self-defense in response to people throwing rocks from the Mexico side during a drug-smuggling attempt.

Prosecutors don't dispute the teen was throwing rocks, but contend Swartz responded with an unreasonable amount of force.