(RoyalPatriot.com )- Eduardo Valdivia, a former FBI agent who was facing attempted murder charges, was found not guilty last week.
A Montgomery County, Maryland, jury return a not guilty verdict last Friday for Valdivia, who was accused of attempted murder inside a Metrorail train in the state.
He was originally accused with shooting another passenger on the Red Lain train while it traveled close to the Bethesda Medical Center station in December of 2020. That passenger who was shot, Steven Slaughter, ended up surviving.
One of Valdivia’s lawyers, Robert Bonsib, said his client never should have been put in the position that he was in. Following the verdict, Bonsib said of his client:
“All he wanted to do that day was go to work, come home and be with his family.”
On that day, December 15 of 2020, Slaughter approached Valdivia while on the train and trying to panhandle. The two men ended up exchanging words, and then Valdivia ultimately shot Slaughter, with him being hit in the arm and abdomen.
The lawyer said Slaughter was an “absolutely deadly threat,” with Valdivia just trying to defend himself and save his own life. He said:
“It was 100% self-defense.”
The prosecution in the case argued that Valdivia was “trying to shoot his way out” of that situation that he had gotten himself into. John McCarthy, the state’s attorney in Montgomery County, said he was disappointed in the verdict in the case, but he did respect the decision that was handed down by the jury. He admitted:
“This was not an easy case.”
What the prosecutor did say was video showed the two men contacted each other twice and that Slaughter wasn’t armed and never once touched Valdivia. The video didn’t have any sound, but the defense team filled in some of the gaps.
During the trial, the defense brought up that Slaughter acknowledged that he said to Valdivia that he was going to “throw you to the wall.”
Bonsib said after the verdict:
“It befuddles me today to understand why (Valdivia) had to go through this for two years.”
In handing down the not guilty verdict, the jury ultimately agreed that Slaughter was the one who was the aggressor in the incident, Bonsib said. That was what the defense team had argued during the trial. They also pointed out that Slaughter had a past criminal history and that Valdivia had a pristine character.
Bonsib explained:
“We thought they needed to hear from Mr. Valdivia. He’s measured; he’s low-key. You can’t pick that up unless you get the opportunity to hear him in court.”
By contrast, Bonsib said the last thing that the prosecution wanted the jury to see was the “face and demeanor of Slaughter” as well as his history of “constant criminality.”
In the case, Valdivia was facing charges of second-degree attempted murder, reckless endangerment, assault and felony use of a firearm. If he would’ve been found guilty, he could have been sentenced to as many as 65 years behind bars.
