An attorney representing a Kentucky woman who shot and killed an El Paso Uber driver has claimed he threatened her in the moments before she shot him.
Phoebe Copas, 50, has maintained that she was acting in self-defense when she shot 52-year-old Daniel Piedra Garcia in the head in June 2023, saying she feared he was kidnapping her and taking her to Mexico.
Copas had hired Garcia earlier in the day to take her to Speaking Rock Entertainment Center, and told officers after the shooting that she thought he was instead bringing her to Juarez, Mexico.
He had told her there was a fair happening in the Mexican city, and even though she replied she did not want to go to the fair, Piedra sped up and ignored her pleas to be let out, Copas’ attorney, Matthew James Kozik, told the El Paso Times.
‘She asked for him to stop the vehicle. She attempted to open the doors, but the doors were locked,’ he claimed. ‘She tried to do everything anybody would expect someone to do before an escalation of force.’
Copas then pulled out her weapon and ‘she begged for him to just pull over the vehicle,’ Kozik continued.
‘He turned around and said, “I’m going to take you. We’re going to Juarez,” and he sped up the car.’
‘She didn’t just point the gun and shoot him. That is not what happened,’ Kozik told the outlet. ‘She told him she didn’t want to go to Juarez. She tried to escape for several minutes. She just wanted to get out of the car. She feared for her life.’
Phoebe Copas, 50, is due to face murder charges for shooting 52-year-old Daniel Piedra Garcia in the head in 2023
Garcia allegedly refused to let her leave the car and said he was bringing her to a fair in Juarez, Mexico
At the time of the shooting, police claimed Copas shot Garcia because she saw traffic signs saying they were approaching ‘Juarez, Mexico’ – though the highway he was driving on also lead to the casino Copas wanted to go to.
After he was shot, the Nissan Maxima Garcia was driving crashed into barriers, which a police affidavit noted was ‘not in close proximity of a bridge, port of entry or other area with immediate access to travel into Mexico.’
‘The roadway Copas was traveling on is a normal route to drive to the destination requested by the Copas.
‘The investigation does not support that a kidnapping took place or that Piedra was veering from Copas’ destination,’ police said.
At a June 29, 2023 earing, El Paso County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Shantal Ortega also claimed that no facts in the case proved Copas was being kidnapped.
‘Simply because this is a border city and there may be signs showing miles away from some port of entry, it is unreasonable that she wouldn’t have come across that before,’ she argued.
District Attorney Bill Hicks even went as far as to claim Copas’ actions were ‘very unreasonable.’
‘El Paso is a safe community. and to have someone react the way she did, I think highlights a misconception about El Paso being dangerous,’ he said.
‘And that’s why it’s so important that we stand up for not just this Uber driver, not just this family, but for our community, to say to El Paso, to the state, to our country that El Paso is a safe community and behavior that reacts any other way is not acceptable.’
Police claimed Copas shot Garcia because she saw traffic signs saying they were approaching ‘Juarez, Mexico’ – though the highway he was driving on also lead to the casino Copas wanted to go to
But Kozik argued that the claim Copas simply saw a sign for Juarez and shot Garcia is ‘literally a figment of law enforcement’s imagination.’
He noted that a review of police body camera footage and an interrogation of his client show she never mentioned the road signs.
Instead, Kozik claimed, it was the first officer who arrived on the scene who told another officer about the road sign – and from there the story spread, to even be included in the police affidavit.
‘She never says she saw a sign of Juarez and then shot him,’ Kozik insisted. ‘She says “yes” during her interview when asked if she saw signs of Juarez, but she also says she saw signs saying Fort Bliss.’
Footage from the day of the shooting also shows Copas crying, praying and asking officers whether Garcia was dead as she sat in the back of the patrol car, the El Paso Times reports.
‘She gets into the back of the vehicle and she is saying, “Jesus. I’m sorry. Oh God, oh God. Oh Lord. Jesus. Sir is he dead?”‘ Kozik said. ‘She repeatedly asks if he is dead.
‘Is tis some racially-motivated attack? Doesn’t seem like it from how she is reacting and from all the evidence in the case.’
Attorney Matthew James Kozik, who is representing Copas, spoke out about what allegedly happened that day
Police had also alleged that before she called 911, Copas took a photo of Piedra after the shooting and texted it to her boyfriend.
When police arrived on the scene at about 2:20pm they found Copas being helped out of the car by her boyfriend.
But Kozik said Copas took the photo because she called her boyfriend for help and he thought she was joking at first.
The lawyer also noted that police found razor blades and a crowbar within Garcia’s arm span, adding credibility to Copas’ fears she was being kidnapped.
‘I can’t speak for everyone, but everyone I know doesn’t carry razor blades on [them] or near their steering wheel,’ Kozik argued. ‘I’ve never heard of or know anyone that does that.
‘Razor blades and a crowbar… are weapons,’ he noted. ‘These are weapons that could be used to commit a crime.
‘These aren’t accusations. These items were found in the car.’
Further supporting Copas’ claims, he said, is Uber driver data that showed Garcia took an unusual route to get to the casino.
‘All of this adds up to show this was not a normal Uber ride,’ he claimed.
Garcia’s family has described the victim as a hard-working man trying to make money for his family.
Garcia’s family has described the victim as a hard-working man trying to make money for his family.
They said they believed he was working his last ride of the day when he picked up Copas.
He was ultimately found slumped over in the driver’s seat of the car having been shot in the head.
He was hospitalized for several days before his family took him off life support after doctors told them he would not recover.
The murder trial is now set for December 9, with a final pretrial hearing set for December 3.
However, the trial may be pushed back to 2025 as Copas continues to suffer serious health conditions, including heart failure, kidney complications and bouts of unconsciousness.
She is now out on bond, living back in Kentucky, and is awaiting a doctor’s approval to travel to El Paso for the trial.