Prosecutors press appeals court to reject moving Castile shooting trial

Prosecutors are pushing back against a request to move the trial of the police officer charged in the death of Philando Castile last summer.

St. Anthony Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot Castile seven times during a July 6 traffic stop in Falcon Heights. Yanez is charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree manslaughter. He's also facing two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm.

Earlier this week, attorneys for St. Anthony officer Jeronimo Yanez filed a motion in the Minnesota Court of Appeals. They're hoping the court will overturn a district judge's decision earlier this month not to move the officer's trial out of Ramsey County.

Yanez's lawyers have argued that the trial should be moved because the case was an "omnipresent spectacle," which included protests, comments by officials and widespread media coverage.

The Ramsey County Attorney's Office argued in Thursday's filing that there's no need to rehash arguments that have already made in district court.

Instead, prosecutors argued that Ramsey County District Court Judge William Leary III has wide discretion to decide whether to move a trial because of pre-trial publicity, and that the appeal should be denied because Leary left open the option that the defense could again ask the district court to move the trial if an unbiased jury can't be found in Ramsey County.

Yanez's attorneys have recommended that the case be moved to elsewhere in Minnesota to Duluth, Hastings, St. Cloud or Brainerd.

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