SAN DIEGO — A federal criminal trial began Tuesday, Feb. 18, for a former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed an unarmed man outside the downtown Central Jail after the man escaped from a patrol car in May 2020.
Former Deputy Aaron Russell is charged with a federal civil rights violation and illegally discharging a firearm in the shooting death of 36‑year‑old Nicholas Bils.
The new trial comes less than nine months after a federal jury failed to reach a verdict in Russell’s first criminal trial on the same charges. In 2022, Russell pleaded guilty in state court to voluntary manslaughter in connection with Bils’ death. The federal charges are separate from the state case…