Protection attorneys for a Minnesota man convicted in December of assaulting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross are looking for entry to investigative information associated to the killing of Renee Nicole Good, after studying Ross was the identical officer who shot and killed her throughout a focused operation in Minneapolis final month.
Attorneys for Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala requested a federal choose on Friday to order prosecutors to show over coaching data in addition to investigative information associated to Ross, the ICE agent who killed Good on January 7 throughout Operation Metro Surge and was additionally injured in a June 2025 incident during which Muñoz-Guatemala dragged him together with his automotive.
A separate post-trial movement by the protection, filed within the US District Court docket in Minnesota, asks the choose to pause deadlines for a new-trial movement till the invention movement is resolved.
Muñoz-Guatemala’s attorneys argue that even when the courtroom in the end decides that any newly found proof doesn’t entitle their shopper to a brand new trial, he’s entitled to discover whether or not there are mitigating elements that might impression the size of his sentence, resembling whether or not Ross’ accidents might have been, to some extent, introduced upon him by his personal habits.
A jury convicted Muñoz-Guatemala on December 10 of assault on a federal officer with a harmful weapon and inflicting bodily damage.
Court docket filings say that Ross and different brokers had been trying to interview Muñoz-Guatemala final summer season, and presumably course of him for deportation, as a result of he had an administrative warrant out for being within the nation with out authorization. They surrounded his Nissan Altima and tried to take away him from the car. Ross then used a software to shatter the rear driver’s-side window earlier than reaching inside. When the defendant accelerated away, Ross testified, he was dragged roughly 100 yards, throughout which period he repeatedly deployed a taser. Muñoz-Guatemala subsequently referred to as 911 to report he’d been the sufferer of an assault.
Throughout his trial, Muñoz-Guatemala mentioned he didn’t perceive that Ross—who in keeping with his personal testimony was sporting ranger inexperienced and grey and wore his badge on his belt—was a federal agent. (Ross testified that Muñoz-Guatemala had requested to talk to an lawyer, which might counsel he knew Ross was appearing as regulation enforcement, however an FBI agent who witnessed the incident mentioned he didn’t hear this. In response to courtroom data, this declare didn’t come up in pretrial interviews, and prosecutors mentioned that they had not heard it earlier than he made the declare in courtroom.) Muñoz-Guatemala’s attorneys say now that had he been tried after Good’s killing, his protection might have additionally asserted that he was justified in resisting Ross, who they declare was the aggressor and used extreme drive.
The argument is that the jury directions primarily contained a two-part resolution tree: Jurors might convict Muñoz-Guatemala in the event that they believed he ought to have identified Ross was regulation enforcement. They may additionally convict him in the event that they believed driving away was not an inexpensive response.
Muñoz-Guatemala’s conviction doesn’t point out which of those prongs the jury relied on. If it was the latter, the protection argues within the movement, the courtroom ought to have entry to proof which will have bearing on Ross’ conduct, ways, and whether or not he behaved aggressively—info which may point out whether or not the agent has a historical past behaving recklessly within the subject or opposite to his coaching.
Prosecutors haven’t but filed a response to the motions. An e mail to an handle related to Ross in publicly out there data didn’t end in an instantaneous response. The Division of Justice didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The Division of Homeland Safety didn’t instantly reply to questions on Ross’ present obligation standing or the standing of any departmental assessment.
Ross has been positioned on administrative depart following the January 7 taking pictures of Good, a 37-year-old Minnesota poet and mom of three, a step DHS officers say is commonplace protocol after deadly use of drive. Ross has not been charged in Good’s killing, and the Justice Division has mentioned it is not going to pursue legal fees.
