He was shot in the side of the buttocks, which would be consistent with the officers testimony that he had turned and pointed a weapon at them when they opened fire.
Was he truly a drug smuggler?
He was granted immunity from the drug smuggling charges in exchange for his perjured testimony against the officers.
If he got away, could the agents have picked up their brass because they didn’t think they hit anything?
Since they watched him jump in a van and drive away they had no reason to suspect that they had hit him. The screw up was that they let the drug smuggler escape. Their crime was in not going by the book after this incident. But as anyone in the military will tell you, you only go by the book when you think someone will come along later and ask you why you didn't go by the book.
They picked up the shells while their supervisor watched them. Technically the supervisor was the one who would have been charged with filing the report on the weapon discharge, but he didn't. It is my understanding that if you discharge your weapon and there are other officers present who witness the event, that the person who discharged the weapon is not supposed to author the report on the incident. Nobody wrote a report on the incident. They didn't go by the book. Now everyone is there attempting to cover their own butts while these two guys rot in prison.
No one should spend years in prison on technicalities.
That is all this sounds like to me. These guys were officers of the law, so they were allowed to have weapons and were allowed to discharge them.
All the remainder sounds like technicalities surrounding a legitimate incident.
Warnings, probations, yada, yada....OK
But PRISON! Gimmeabreak!