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.”…