Prosecutors: Officer's Comments In Castile Shooting Admissible

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors are asking a court to allow statements at trial from a Minnesota police officer charged with killing a black man in a shooting that had its aftermath streamed live on Facebook.

Defense attorneys for Jeronimo Yanez, 29, want to suppress the St. Anthony officer's interview with investigators, dismiss the most serious charge against him and exclude an expert witness at trial.

Yanez is charged with second-degree manslaughter and two other felonies in the death of Philando Castile, 32, who was shot in Falcon Heights in July 2016. The shooting generated widespread attention when Castile's girlfriend livestreamed the aftermath on Facebook.

Prosecutors say Yanez's interview with investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension the day after Castile was killed was voluntary.

"(BCA agents) asked straightforward questions, politely and respectfully," prosecutors argued. "The interview lasted only an hour. . If Defendant had been so exhausted or so upset that he could not provide a statement freely and voluntarily, surely his experienced counsel would have intervened and postponed the interview."

Yanez's attorneys, Paul Engh, Earl Gray and Thomas Kelly, argued in a motion filed earlier this month that statements in officer-involved shootings are usually given 48 hours after the incident, after an officer has had time to recover. The lawyers also moved to dismiss the manslaughter charge, arguing that the statute's vagueness violated Yanez's due process.

"(The defense's) exact argument is difficult to discern," prosecutors wrote in their response. "Accordingly, it is impossible for the State to respond meaningfully to this undeveloped claim."

A motion hearing is scheduled for April 4.

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