Border Patrol agent appeared to brag about his accuracy after shooting Chicago woman five times, messages in court reveal

By Omar Jimenez, Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

Chicago (CNN) — A Customs and Border Protection agent appeared to brag to fellow agents about his marksmanship after he repeatedly shot a Chicago woman following a collision between their cars, text messages shown in court revealed.

The woman, Marimar Martinez, is accused of closely pursuing the agent and ramming into his car. But her defense attorney has alleged the opposite, saying it was actually the agent who sideswiped Martinez.

Text messages from the agent, Charles Exum, were displayed in court Wednesday as Martinez’s defense attorney sought to prove his claim the government potentially destroyed evidence that may have supported the defense when it released Exum’s damaged vehicle and allowed the agent to drive it more than 1,000 miles to his home state of Maine.

Criminal defense attorney Christopher Parente pointed to the messages as an indication Exum understood the high public scrutiny of the case and would have recognized the potential evidentiary value of this vehicle.

As the case grasped the attention of national media and the public, Exum sent an article from The Guardian on October 7 to a group of other agents, which quoted Parente saying Martinez had “seven holes in her body from five shots from this agent.”

“Read it. 5 shots, 7 holes,” Exum said in the next text.

When Parente pressed him on what he meant, Exum responded he was a firearms instructor. He said, “I take pride in my shooting skills.”

Another message to the group read, “I have a MOF amendment to add to my story. I fired 5 rounds, and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”

Exum explained to the judge MOF is a “Miserable Old F**ker” who is always trying to one up someone wherever possible.

It’s unclear what exactly he was responding to because the text conversations were redacted when presented to the court.

When asked to explain the text, Exum said, “That means illegal actions have legal consequences.”

Exum defended his use of force against Martinez, saying his life was at risk and “I did what I had to do.”

Later, he noted Border Patrol agents consider “transferred intent” when deciding whether to use force, meaning, for example, whatever was done to an agent’s vehicle is considered as intent to do the same to the agent. The agent’s responding use of force needed to be proportionate, he said.

“This incident is so unlike anything we have trained for,” Exum told the judge. He said it was something one might see in “cartel-controlled” areas of the world, not on American streets.

He did not elaborate further. Parente, a former federal prosecutor, has often described the incident leading up to the shooting as nothing more than a minor car accident.

Martinez, a 30-year-old American citizen, and her co-defendant, Anthony Ruiz – who was driving a different vehicle – have been accused by federal prosecutors of “aggressively and erratically” following and then ramming Exum and other agents inside his vehicle who were on security detail in Chicago.

Martinez and Ruiz allegedly drove within inches of the Border Patrol car, at times running red lights and driving in the wrong lane as they pursued the agent, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent.

Martinez and Ruiz were present in court Wednesday and both have entered not guilty pleas to a federal charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.

When Parente asked whether Exum was ever concerned his conduct could have violated CBP policy, Exum responded, “Not in the slightest.”

FBI decided the car didn’t need to be preserved as evidence

Though one might expect hearings in the case to focus on what happened in the moments leading up to the collision, Wednesday instead focused on what happened afterward – and what, exactly, the government did with Exum’s car.

US District Judge Georgia Alexakis expressed skepticism Wednesday over why the cars of the two drivers charged in the case – Martinez and Ruiz – have been kept in Chicago as evidence, while the Border Patrol agent’s car was released and allowed to travel normally.

“What gives me great pause is the fact the cars have been treated differently,” Alexakis said.

Government attorneys defended federal agents’ decisions, saying the FBI had preserved any evidence they believed was relevant before releasing the car back onto the street.

On the day of the crash, the FBI collected pictures of the car’s exterior, paint samples and other evidence, according to an affidavit filed by the Justice Department. The vehicle was given back to Exum that evening, and he was not told to preserve the car in any way, he said.

For the next three days, Exum drove the car around Chicago as he finished his rotation in the city, according to the affidavit. He also met with the FBI and US Attorney’s Office, and data was downloaded from his car, he said.

On October 8 – four days after the crash – he drove the SUV back to Maine and parked it in a secure Border Patrol garage. There, a mechanic began repairs on the car, but was ordered to stop because of the ongoing court arguments over the car.

About a week after returning to Maine, Exum said an FBI agent called and said they may need to retrieve the car, the agent said. Though Exum initially told the FBI he did not believe any work had been done to the car, he later found out a mechanic had buffed scuff marks off of it.

Exum said he sent an email to his chain of command that his vehicle may have evidentiary value and it was not to be worked on.

Exum’s supervisor said he approved mechanical work on the vehicle because he believed all evidence had been collected in Chicago, the agent testified.

“If they needed it as evidence, I did not think they would have released it from the investigation, had you drive three days all the way back to Maine, possibly destroying some of that evidence along the way, if they still needed it,” the supervisor wrote in an email sent to Exum on October 17 and shown in court.

But the judge, Alexakis, said the government clearly believed the vehicle could be exculpatory evidence, otherwise it would not have gone through the trouble to preserve records on the car.

Alexakis ordered the government last month to return the SUV to Chicago – this time on the back of a flatbed truck. No alteration should have been made – not even a car wash – before the defense could examine it.

But Parente claims he has been blocked from fully examining the vehicle since it was returned.

He and his expert were able to inspect the vehicle, he said Wednesday, but they were not allowed to get within two feet of it or touch it.

Judge questions ‘government narrative’

Before moving forward with the hearing, Alexakis noted the government’s case has included some discrepancies and omissions that have caused her to tread carefully.

She pointed out the Justice Department had previously said in court the agent took the SUV back to Maine because it was his “personal vehicle,” then stated in a later court filing the car is part of an official Border Patrol fleet.

The judge also noted she had not previously been told a mechanic had worked on the car, and also the government has given at least two different accounts of who approved the car’s removal to Maine.

She acknowledged the government version of events may turn out to be true, “but I can’t accept that possibility at this juncture,” she said.

“The fact that these discrepancies are popping up cause me to question the narrative being put forward,” the judge said.

Alexakis acknowledged the government was working under a tight time frame to relay information to the court but, she said, “the compressed time frame is a time frame of their own making.”

Among the questions in front of her now, she said, is whether the government acted in bad faith or whether the evidence was influenced in a prejudicial manner.

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CNN’s Omar Jimenez reported from Chicago and Elizabeth Wolfe wrote and reported from Los Angeles.