Oregon’s top court has declined to compel the social media giant Meta to release records that could be relevant to a Salem man’s upcoming murder trial.

Justices for the Oregon Supreme Court wrote in a recent briefing that attorneys representing David Ayon-Urbano had not yet proved that the high court’s “extraordinary” intervention is necessary to obtain the records, which may or may not bolster his self-defense claims.

Ayon-Urbano shot and killed 16-year-old Hector de Jesus Gonzalez Mendoza the evening of June 23, 2024, during a late-night encounter outside Salem. Ayon-Urbano, who was 19 at the time, has argued in court that he was caught in the crossfire of gang violence and that another teen orchestrated the fatal encounter.

Marion County prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder, which carries a minimum 25-year sentence. In court filings, they’ve signaled they will push for a harsher sentence because Ayon-Urbano was “motivated by bias” and lacked remorse.

To prove Ayon-Urbano’s self-defense theory, however, he and his attorneys have said they need the other teen’s social media records. But a 40-year-old federal law prevents criminal defense attorneys from directly subpoenaing the tech company.

Attorneys Zach Stern and Rian Peck argue that law – the Stored Communications Act – hurts criminal defendants’ rights to fair trials because it gives prosecutors, who can subpoena the records, an edge.

“We have to prove 100 different ways that we can’t get this from any other source,” Stern said. “The question here is process. The amount of resources it takes to just investigate our cases pre-trial is infinitely more than it is for the state, who has more resources.”

Stern told OPB that he was disappointed by the justice’s decision, but said the ruling doesn’t prevent the attorneys from asking again after trying some other avenues to get the records.

Officials with the Marion County District Attorney’s Office declined to discuss the state Supreme Court’s decision. In May, they disputed Ayon-Urbano’s claims of any special advantage in court.

While the federal law allows prosecutors and police to get social media companies’ records, officials said, they first have to have probable cause. They argue law enforcement didn’t have probable cause to search the social media accounts that Ayon-Urbano is seeking.

“Any impression that law enforcement is failing to do due diligence by failing to (search a phone) would be both inappropriate and wildly inaccurate,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy wrote to OPB in May.

Attorneys for Meta, who did not respond to requests for comment, argued to the Oregon Supreme Court that the Stored Communications Act protects users’ privacy. While they resisted providing the records, they told the justices that they won’t delete any of the records that may or may not be relevant to Ayon-Urbano’s case.

“Meta has represented to the court that it will preserve the records at issue until the final resolution of this case,” the justices wrote in their dismissal. “The court accepts and will hold Meta to that representation.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/01/oregon-supreme-court-declines-to-compel-social-media-records-in-upcoming-murder-trial/