Nearly half of Damion Chavez’s 39-page interview, as it appears transcribed, will not be allowed as state evidence against him at trial, District Court Judge Angela Doyle ruled Wednesday. The 10-page opinion comes nearly five weeks after the February motion was argued in court.

The Fort Dodge man, 20, faces first-degree murder and first-degree robbery charges after an apparent drug deal went wrong on the city’s west side in October, leaving South Dakota man Mohammed Yaqoub, 28, dead in his Chevrolet Impala.

The exclusion applies to several potentially critical items outlined by Chavez, such as where those involved were sitting in the car, how many times he had admittedly “ripped somebody off” before the October incident, why he left the state of Iowa after the shooting, the whereabouts of the murder weapon and how much he got for the marijuana allegedly stolen.

Late in the interview, Chavez told the detective that he fled the state of Iowa, “because I knew (the victim) was dead.”

The ruling will still allow the first half of the interview into evidence, including statements indicating he went into a $2,000 drug transaction penniless with co-defendant Tate Martinson, then 17. Chavez said the gun accidentally went off when the victim attempted to grab it from him.

“I didn’t mean to hurt (Yaqoub). I just wanted to scare him,” Chavez said to Detective Larry Hedlund of Fort Dodge Police Department, explaining why he was pointing the gun at the victim.

The quote early in the interview will still be admissible in court. Chavez declined to say why he pulled the trigger twice.

Hedlund’s interview, law enforcement’s first with him after the shooting, was conducted in Georgia after a nationwide manhunt for Chavez ended about 20 miles north of the Florida state line. Chavez said in subsequent interviews he was trying to get to Florida.

In a two-hour hearing on the motion, lead defense attorney Katherine Flickinger argued that everything obtained from that interview was a “fruit of the poisonous tree” after Hedlund failed to properly Mirandize Chavez or allow him to call his mother without delay.

All defendants in criminal cases must be properly advised of their Miranda Rights, including the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney and that anything they say during interviews with law enforcement can be used against them. Flickinger unsuccessfully argued that Chavez had not been properly Mirandized because he was not told explicitly that his right to a state attorney would be at state expense.

Doyle disagreed with three-quarters of the arguments Flickinger presented, ruling that Chavez was properly mirandized, knowingly waived his rights to speak with an attorney during questioning, and that he spoke to Hedlund without coercion.

The judge’s ruling granted the defense a win on one argument, a violation of Chavez’s right under Iowa state law to speak to a family member (his mother) upon request without delay.

“The right to call a family member is equally important as the right to call counsel,” Doyle said, quoting state code, noting that Chavez’s request was unduly delayed and that all statements after the first request are to be excluded from evidence.

“In all but the final instance, Chavez was unheard, ignored or diverted from realizing his right,” she said, saying Hedlund “should have” heard his first request, despite state arguments that he could not in between rings from his cell phone. “The questions and answers continued as though no request had been made.”

Even if he was distracted, Doyle said, the law does not recognize an exception to delay for “for questioners who fail to perceive the request.”

A second request made by Chavez while the phone was not ringing was averted in Hedlund’s questioning before Chavez became more insistent. The amount of time that lapsed between the first request and the third granted request to call his mother was about 12 minutes. The first request was made about 35 minutes into the interview.

The Chavez murder trial, originally scheduled to start in March, has been postponed until August.