A file image of a judge's gavel in a courtroom at the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
Pima County Attorney Laura Conover says the federal indictment doesn’t offer justice to the six other victims, who a Pima County grand jury said Julio Aguirre held at gunpoint before the attempted carjacking and alleged shooting death.
“We have a four generation family of victims who are not accounted for at all in federal court,” she said. “They tell us they've never been contacted by anyone from the federal government at all, and I've got to say, I've never heard, in my entire career … of picking and choosing victims who you seek justice for.”
The county is accusing Aguirre of murdering 69-year-old Ricky E. Miller Sr. while attempting to steal his car on June 30 in Tucson’s midtown. A criminal complaint lists multiple other charges of burglary and assault for an alleged crime spree involving numerous victims that night.
Court records say that while police were arresting Aguirre, a Tucson Police Department dog bit him on the leg, and they took him to the hospital for treatment.
But before Aguirre could be booked into Pima County jail, federal agents took custody of him. The county says he remains in federal custody at an undisclosed location.
Federal indictments against Aguirre, filed this week, include attempted carjacking resulting in death and use of a firearm during a crime of violence causing death. They are also charging him with the lesser charges of entering the country illegally and possessing a firearm while in the country illegally.
But Conover says the federal charges don’t account for all of the victims in Pima County.
“They've taken the suspect away,” she said. “We don't have access to him, still, and we have victims who are 76 and 78 years old. They need to be deposed. We have to do our job here.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tucson declined to say whether the federal charges address the other alleged victims. The indictment only addresses it by saying the defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to one or more other people.
Federal court records say Aguirre, a Mexican citizen, was on parole at the time of his arrest and that he was arrested at least a dozen times between 2007 and 2013 for immigration related crimes and was deported in 2013.
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