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Jurors View Body-Cam and Surveillance Footage as Prairieland ICE Attack Trial Reaches Day 3

Prosecutors aim to show through digital evidence that the July 4 episode was a coordinated attack.

Overview

  • FBI agents guided jurors through surveillance and Alvarado police dash and body-camera video depicting fireworks over the facility, as prosecutors cast the events as a planned riot and the defense maintains it was a noise demonstration.
  • Johnson County Deputy Carl Banks testified he found an AR-15 rifle, a pistol, body armor, and ammunition in a vehicle linked to defendant Meagan Morris.
  • Over defense objections, the court played body-camera footage in which officers described a “targeted hit” and a “coordinated terror attack,” characterizations the defense pressed Banks to admit were premature during cross-examination.
  • Lt. Thomas Gross earlier told jurors he believed he walked into an ambush and was shot in the neck, with his body-camera and dashboard footage shown in court.
  • Prosecutors plan to introduce encrypted chats and have referenced more than 200 digital exhibits while pursuing terrorism and violent-offense counts under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2339A, 1114, and 924 that could carry life sentences for some defendants.