Ex-border agent fights kidnapping and rape conviction 

PHOENIX (CN) — A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent convicted of kidnapping and raping a middle schooler argued Thursday his federal trial should have been held in state court because his car is not a means of interstate commerce.

Before a Ninth Circuit panel in Phoenix, defense attorney Stephanie Bond said Aaron Mitchell picked the girl up outside her school in Douglass, Arizona, and drove her 40 minutes to his apartment, but denied raping her or using interstate commerce to do so.

“He did not cross state lines,” Bond said Thursday morning. “He did not use an interstate to travel. He did not use a cellphone at all, definitely not in furtherance of the offense.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, a George W. Bush appointee, asked whether it would be different if Mitchell used the interstate highway to travel to his apartment.

“I think that’s an argument that the government should have made and that the court could have considered,” Bond replied.

She argued that a vehicle is not inherently a means of interstate commerce, and Mitchell’s trial therefore should have been held in state court.

“I don’t think our Legislature intended the government to have the power to prosecute any crime in which a car is being used,” she said, referring to Congress. “To transform any crime that uses a vehicle into a federal matter allows the government to regulate everything that moves,” she added, quoting from a Supreme Court decision in USA v. Lopez.

DOJ attorney Katie Neff said Bond misinterpreted Lopez.

“This court expressly rejected a case by case analysis for when there is an instrumentality of interstate commerce,” she said. “The circuits that have reviewed this issue have all agreed. The notion that something more is needed, this court has rejected that and United States v. Lopez never required that.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Hawkins suggested that all cars not manufactured in the state where they are used can be defined as an instrumentality of interstate commerce.

“I’ve lived in Arizona all my life,” the Bill Clinton appointee said. “There’s no nonelectric vehicle manufactured in Arizona. That car had to come from interstate commerce.”

A federal jury convicted Mitchell in April 2024 of kidnapping and deprivation of civil rights under the color of the law, finding aggravated sexual abuse and bodily injuries as elements of the crime. In March 2025, a federal judge sentenced him to 27 years in prison.

“The evidence in this case was overwhelming,” Neff said. “The defendant was a Customs and Border Protection officer who used the power of his position to force a middle school girl into his vehicle, then repeatedly raped her.”

Evidence at trial showed that Mitchell forced the girl to drink alcohol and raped her at least three times before returning her to an alley near the school.

“It’s corroborated by the injuries that she sustained from those attacks,” Neff said. “He raped her vaginally and anally. In his phone he had searches about how to cover up a rape. He had searches about how long to smother someone before they die.”

Mitchell’s defense claimed at trial the searches, which also included “can a 16 year old get drunk fast?” and “girl kidnapped raped douglass,” were planted by the FBI, and on appeal, say they shouldn’t have been admitted.

Bond said the girl got into Mitchell’s car willingly, as “she had planned all along to ditch school that day.” She said the two watched Netflix in his apartment, but never had sex.

She claims the trial judge allowed prosecutorial misconduct by admitting testimony that some vaginal DNA swabs and swabs from the victim’s underwear matched Mitchell, though most of the tests were inconclusive.

That evidence was precluded from trial, but prosecutors improperly introduced it anyway. The judge told the jury to disregard the testimony, but Mitchell says the bell can’t be unrung.

“We had so much prosecutorial misconduct in this case that it’s a big muddle,” Bond said. “I don’t know if they believed her. If they believed the scientific government evidence that was precluded that the government brought in.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Michelle Friedland, appointed by Barack Obama, also sat on the panel. They didn’t indicate when they will rule.

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