A group of roughly 20 protesters beat drums, waved signs and blared music outside the Tarrant County Jail Friday night.
“You are not forgotten," the protesters shouted. "You are not alone. We will fight to bring you home."
Housed in the jail are nine defendants currently on trial for the nonfatal July 4 shooting of a police officer outside the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado. Friday’s noise demonstration downtown closed out the first full week of federal court proceedings in Fort Worth.
Defendants in the case say they, too, only meant to hold a noise demonstration to support people in ICE custody the night of July 4, and any violence was unexpected. The Justice Department says the group launched a coordinated attack and ambush on the facility — motivated by their anarchist and socialist “antifa” beliefs — with the intent to kill ICE agents.
The government’s evidence and questioning is filling in the gaps of exactly what occurred at Prairieland and the days afterward. But prosecutors have only scratched the surface of their argument that the defendants provided material support to terrorism.
The defense, on the other hand, argues the group acted within their rights as protesters — and they’re testing out a theory that the shooting was justified self defense.
Here are some major takeaways as the trial resumes Tuesday.
Officer who was shot may have drawn his gun first
Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross told jurors last week he believed he was walking into an ambush when he arrived at Prairieland around 11 p.m. July 4 in response to a call about a disturbance.
Gross testified that as he pulled into the facility, he saw at least two people dressed in all black — including one with a green mask and an AR-style rifle — running away, and he yelled at them to stop. Body camera footage shows as the officer got out of his car, the person in the green mask, who prosecutors allege was defendant Benjamin Song, shouted, “get to the rifles.”
Within seconds, gunshots rang out and Gross fell to the ground. Gross told jurors he was shot once in his neck, and the bullet exited through his back. The officer fired three shots in response.
But after questioning from the defense, Gross and other witnesses testified that the officer may have pulled his gun before the shooter drew his rifle.
Law enforcement witnesses said it would have been “extremely reasonable” and “absolutely” justified for Gross to draw his weapon upon arriving at the scene. Defense attorneys used Gross’ testimony to imply that Song fired to defend the unidentified third person running nearby, and Gross used unreasonable force.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a motion Friday to prevent defense attorneys from making the self-defense argument to the jury. Prosecutors called the theory “legally insupportable” because the defendants prompted the law enforcement response by shooting fireworks and damaging property.
To make that point, prosecutors compared the Prairieland case to another: the Branch Davidians.
During the 1993 confrontation at the religious sect’s compound in Waco, members fired at federal agents and were ultimately convicted of multiple offenses, according to the motion. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the district court upon appeal, ruling that the jury was not allowed to consider self defense in the case because the Davidians shot first and prompted law enforcement’s use of force.
“Just as the Davidians in Branch could not claim self-defense … the Defendants are barred from claiming self-defense where their own crimes prompted federal officials to respond with force,” U.S. attorneys wrote.
A mid-trial motion like this isn’t unusual, said Cody Cofer, one of the attorneys representing defendant Autumn Hill. But he said the government’s motion may indicate they’re surprised Gross testified to drawing his weapon first.
“The Government seeks to withhold evidence from the jury that is important for understanding the truth: there was no planned ambush,” Cofer wrote in an email to KERA News Sunday.
Closer look at ‘antifa materials’ in defendants’ possession
Jurors got their first detailed look Friday at materials found at Prairieland and at the defendants’ homes that prosecutors allege are associated with antifa.
Defendant Zachary Evetts’ red Mazda was parked at Prairieland. Inside, an FBI investigator found Socialist Rifle Association pamphlets, a constitutional carry pamphlet and an anti-fascism warning paper. Investigators also recovered an AR-style rifle and a loaded pistol.
Evetts’ attorney Patrick McLain pushed back, getting the investigator to confirm that nothing encouraging illegal activity was found in the car, and there is no set amount of guns a person is allowed to have.
In husband and wife Ines and Elizabeth Soto’s silver SUV — also found near Prairieland — another investigator testified that he found a pistol, a knife and a piece of notebook paper with a bulleted list including the words, “I don’t bash back, I shoot first.”
Blake Burns, one of Elizabeth Soto’s attorneys, implied the list was written like a list of books or other art titles. According to multiple sites, an anonymous essay with that same title was reportedly circulated in queer, anarchist circles in the Pacific Northwest.
At Meagan Morris and Autumn Hill’s house in Dallas, another investigator testified he recovered rifles, body armor, and signs with phrases like “activism is not terrorism” and “still not my president.” The evidence also included some of the same pamphlets found in Evetts’ car and another titled “The Satanist death-cult is real.”
Hill’s attorney James Luster asked the agent whether he knew the pamphlet was a “movie analysis” on the films Hereditary and Midsommar, to which the agent responded “no.”
President Donald Trump declared antifa — short for anti-fascist — a domestic terror threat last year. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith described antifa during opening arguments as a decentralized movement made up of small "cells," with anarchist and socialist components.
But prosecutors have seldom referred to antifa as a domestic terrorist organization or used the word “terrorism” to describe the defendants’ actions. There is no federal criminal statute to charge people for domestic terrorism like there is for foreign terrorism.
What’s to come
Smith told Judge Pittman the government expected to put forward more witnesses this week to make the case against Daniel Sanchez Estrada. The 39-year-old was not at Prairieland the night of the shooting but is instead accused of transporting a box of what prosecutors call “insurrectionary” materials from his home in Garland to an apartment in Denton.
The government alleges Maricela Rueda, another defendant who’s married to Sanchez Estrada, instructed him to do so during a phone call played for the jury Friday.
Smith also said jurors will soon see Signal chats where the defendants allegedly planned the shooting, learn about search warrants executed at the defendants’ homes and hear from cooperating defendants who have pleaded guilty.
Defense attorneys have cast doubt on one of those cooperating defendants, Nathan Baumann, in their questioning. Cofer and others have implied Baumann vandalized property at Prairieland without telling anyone and immediately blamed it on someone else when he was arrested.
Some of the defendants are also expected to take the witness stand, according to court filings.
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
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