The Minnesota police officer charged in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop last summer asked a state judge for a change of venue, arguing local media coverage of the case has turned prospective jurors against him.

March 17, 2017

Dionne Cordell-Whitney | Courthouse News Service

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CN)  – The Minnesota police officer charged in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop last summer asked a state judge for a change of venue, arguing local media coverage of the case has turned prospective jurors against him.

Earl Gray, Thomas Kelly and Paul Engh – attorneys representing St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez – filed a 10-page memorandum Tuesday asking to move Yanez’s case out of Ramsey County District Court.

Yanez fatally shot Castile during a routine traffic stop in July 2016, and the aftermath of the incident was broadcast live on social media by Diamond Reynolds, a passenger in the vehicle with her 4-year-old child.

He was charged in November with one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm.

Ramsey County District Court Judge William Leary III denied Yanez’s motion to dismiss last month, and he has since pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial is currently scheduled for May 30.

Yanez says “slanted” media coverage has filled local newspapers and news stations since the shooting.

“The media coverage and protests have never suggested an iota of fault in Mr. Castile’s conduct,” his attorneys say. “That one-sidedness is ‘potentially prejudicial.’”

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