Federal attorneys look to block FBI testimony on MS-13 connection in Annapolis mass shooting case

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/12/30/us-attorney-block-fbi-testimony-charles-smith/

Despite a court order, federal attorneys are hoping to prevent FBI agents from testifying in the mass shooting case against Charles Robert Smith, an Annapolis man accused of killing three Hispanic people and shooting three others in an alleged hate crime last year.

As Smith’s case nears its trial date in February, his legal team has begun framing the shooting as a gunfight between their client and people they believe were criminally associated with one of his neighbors, Mario Mireles.

Court records show the FBI had been looking into Mireles as part of a drug trafficking investigation up to and past the point of his death. Since learning of it, Smith’s legal team has tried to glean as much information as it can to support the idea Smith was defending himself from a neighbor with a “dangerous reputation.”

In a Dec. 20 motion, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland argued the federal agency should not have to surrender parts of its ongoing investigation for the circuit court case, claiming it was out of the scope of Anne Arundel Circuit Judge J. Michael Wachs to make such a demand.

Mireles, his friend Christian Segovia and his father, Nicolas Mireles, were shot and killed June 11, 2023 while attending a party in the 1000 block of Paddington Place. According to charging documents, Mario Mireles and Smith’s mother had gotten into an argument over street parking when Smith came home, got involved and pulled out a gun.

Over the next several minutes, after police said Smith went into his mother’s house and began firing a rifle out its front window, Annapolis experienced its deadliest shooting in nearly five years.

Law enforcement investigators, including crime scene analysts with the FBI, quickly encased much of the neighborhood in yellow tape. Though police did not reference any evidence of a gunfight in charging documents, when the crime scene was torn down, several bullet holes could be seen on the side and front of Smith’s home.

Other than the defendant, no other witnesses reported seeing someone with a gun.

Smith has been held without bond since his arrest over 1 1/2 years ago. In that time, his three public defenders — Denis O’Connell, Anne Stewart-Hill and Felipe Gonzalez Smith — have worked to bolster a self-defense argument surrounding Mario Mireles’ alleged involvement with the MS-13 criminal gang.

At the time of the 2023 mass shooting, the FBI was investigating Mario Mireles’ “potential involvement in drug distribution,” according to court documents, and in November, Wachs, the circuit court judge, ordered the federal agency to not only provide information from that investigation but allow at least two of its agents to testify in the trial.

Declining to comment Friday, the United States Attorney’s Office wrote in court filings that the federal government was “unclear” how their investigation into Mario Mireles became public and argued it should not be forced to divulge any information gathered after the subject’s death.

Asking for possible connections between MS-13 and any of the Mireles’ party guests, Wachs’ order also demanded information on a “hit” put on Smith in jail and allegedly financed by the Mireles family.

“We believe we are entitled to information regarding both of these issues as they go to whether Mr. Smith was reasonable in believing he faced an imminent threat of deadly harm,” Stewart-Hill wrote in an email Friday.

Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess, who has taken the rare step of prosecuting Smith herself, has repeatedly denied the assertion that last year’s mass shooting was gang-related, dismissing the MS-13 allegations as rumors.

Alongside Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Steinhardt, Leitess has pushed back against Smith’s attempts to obtain what she described as “dossiers” on the state’s witnesses, including their immigration statuses.

Smith’s attorneys argued in court last month that the government could negotiate around someone’s immigration status in exchange for testimony. Prosecutors said they were unaware of any deals between witnesses and the federal government, while Steinhardt called the inquiry “unfortunate.”

Nelcy Goss, Mario Mireles’ sister, declined to comment on the allegations surrounding her brother Friday, but said “no matter what is true or false, Mario did not deserve to die that day.”

“He was no threat to [Smith] or anyone else,” Goss said. “Three people lost their lives that day for no reason. And all we want is justice for all our families.”

Smith is scheduled to return to court Jan. 6. The hearing will continue evaluating what kind of evidence is permissible in trial.