Defense attorneys for an Annapolis man charged in the alleged hate-driven killing of three men over a neighborhood parking space say he will claim self-defense, and they want the FBI to turn over information about alleged “criminal ties” of one of the victims.

Attorneys with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender filed court papers late last week in U.S. District Court on behalf of Charles Robert Smith, who is scheduled to go on trial in state court next month. They say the FBI has investigated alleged ties between one of the victims, Mario Mireles Ruiz, and other members of his family “to violent gangs such as the Mexican Cartel, as well as of the Mireles family’s efforts to finance a contract killing of” Smith.

“Mr. Smith is claiming self-defense against violent gang members in this case,” assistant public defender Deborah Katz Levi wrote.

They want a federal judge to order the FBI to turn over more information and to compel agents to testify. A state judge in Anne Arundel County in November already ordered it to do so, but the FBI has refused and filed a motion to quash the order last month, citing “sovereign immunity.”

Smith, 45, was indicted in July 2023 and charged with six counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree murder substantially motivated by hate towards persons of Hispanic national origin, and other charges.

The three men who were killed on June 11, 2023, were Mireles Ruiz, 27, of Annapolis; Nicholas Mireles, 55, of Odenton; and Christian Marlon Segovia Jr., 24, of Severn. Three other people were wounded.

The shootings sparked an outpouring of grief in Annapolis’ Latino community and beyond. Mireles Ruiz and Mireles owned small businesses, and Segovia was completing school to be a mechanic. At a vigil last year, Segovia’s family said they were offended at suggestions at the time from defense attorneys that the victims had gang ties; the recent filings don’t accuse Segovia of criminal activity.

Attempts to reach representatives of the Mireles family were not successful.

In court documents, prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against Smith, saying the two families had disputes for years, with one of the eventual victims accusing Smith’s mother of using racial slurs toward him and his family and against other neighbors who were Black.

Smith’s attorneys in court papers laid out their client’s version of what happened that night. They have previously said Smith, who lived with his mother, is an Army veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He had been sailing in Round Bay and returned home with his 16-foot sailboat, Latitude Adjustment.

At the time, the Mireles family was holding a birthday party with about 40 to 50 guests, and Smith was unable to park his car because of a partygoer’s vehicle blocking his driveway, according to Smith’s attorneys.

Smith saw his mother having a “heated verbal altercation” with Mireles Ruiz, according to court papers. His attorneys say Smith was familiar with Mireles Ruiz’s “reputation for violence as well as gun possession from prior incidents” and retrieved a Glock pistol from inside her home to protect himself and his mother.

They say Mireles Ruiz “violently took [Smith] to the ground and grabbed for his Glock pistol.” During the struggle, Smith shot Mireles Ruiz at close range several times until he stopped moving.

Segovia began moving toward Smith, according to Smith’s attorneys. Believing Segovia was armed, Smith then shot him several times.

Other partygoers fired back, Smith’s attorneys said, and Smith retreated into his mother’s home. “At this time several individuals attempted to break into [Smith’s] house by smashing the main pane and one of the side panes of the front bay window” of the home, Smith’s attorneys wrote.

Smith retrieved an AR-15 rifle and “began firing at the intruders as well as laying suppressive fire to prevent anyone else from approaching the house,” according to the court filing. That’s when Mireles was fatally shot, along with the three victims who survived.

Later that month, the FBI alerted members of the Annapolis Police Department that the Mireles family and associates were raising money to put a hit on Smith, according to Smith’s attorneys, and that “the family had a lot of connections with the Mexican Cartel and jail and prison system in Maryland and would use those connections to effectuate the hit.”

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office acknowledged last year they were investigating Mireles Ruiz for “potential involvement in drug distribution” and say the investigation is ongoing. Disclosing additional information “may compromise an ongoing criminal investigation or disclose the identity of confidential source(s),” they said.

In November, Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Michael Wachs ordered the FBI to provide information on individuals associated with the MS-13 gang or any affiliated criminal organizations who were at the shooting scene. The order also required an FBI supervisory special agent and a special agent to testify at trial about the Mireles family and the alleged hit put out on Smith after the mass shooting.

Federal prosecutors maintain the state courts can’t make them produce the information.

“... Because the FBI enjoys immunity from compulsion to produce documents and appear in State Court, and has not waived that immunity, the State Court lacks jurisdiction to order the FBI to appear, and the November 25 Order must be quashed in so far as it relates to the FBI,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael J. Wilson and Vickie E. LeDuc wrote in court papers last month.

Columnist Rick Hutzell contributed to this article.