How ‘a very simple case’ spiraled into accusations of death threats against Trump and became a flashpoint in Washington’s immigration crackdown

Demetric Scott was a high school dropout starting a life of frequent cocaine use and brushes with the law around the same time another teenager, Ramon Morales Reyes, was beginning his journey as an undocumented immigrant in America. Scott was 15 when he first started smoking cocaine with friends in Milwaukee’s Hillside Terrace housing project in the late 1980s, his mother, Arnita Scott, recalled last week, telling CNN, “He never stopped using.” Morales emigrated from rural Mexico at the age of 16. He settled first in California and later Wisconsin, eking out a meager living washing dishes and cleaning at Denny’s and Applebee’s while raising a family. On the afternoon of September 26, 2023, Scott and Morales were living very different, largely unremarkable lives, when their paths crossed on a Milwaukee street. Scott, 52, wound up charged with robbery and aggravated battery after allegedly slashing Morales, 54, and stealing his bicycle. “It’s really I think a very simple case,” James Griffin, an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee County, told jurors during Scott’s four-day trial. Early last year, a judge declared a mistrial after the jury said it could not reach a verdict. Now, that seemingly straightforward robbery and battery case has thrust the two men into the national spotlight, their story a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s turbulent immigration crackdown. Scott has admitted to trying to frame Morales – who was set to testify in Scott’s second trial next month – with false letters threatening to kill President Donald Trump, according to court records. His alleged ruse worked, up to a point: Immigration officers detained Morales. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump allies hailed the collar. Morales, facing the possibility of deportation, will appear via video conference before an immigration judge in Chicago on Tuesday. Scott also is expected to face a judge on Tuesday in Milwaukee, where he has been charged with two counts of bail jumping, one count of intimidating a witness and one count of identity theft, according to a criminal complaint filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court last week. CNN has reached out to Scott’s attorney for comment. “If you did it, you got to deal with it. You got to go to jail for it,” Arnita Scott said she told her son when he called her from jail last week. ‘I got a hell of a plan’ On May 28, Noem announced that Morales sent a letter threatening to kill Trump and “self deport” after the assassination even though investigators were already looking into the possibility the immigrant was set up, CNN has reported. “This illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars,” Noem wrote in a social media post that included the letter and a photo of Morales. DHS also put out a news release. The story and stunning allegation made national headlines. In an interview with Milwaukee police investigators, Scott in late May “admitted that he wrote everything on the letters and envelopes himself,” according to charging documents. “When asked what was going through his head at the time of writing the letters, the defendant stated ‘Freedom.’” The Wisconsin Attorney General’s office, the Milwaukee Police Department and the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office all received handwritten letters in the mail on May 21, the documents said. Scott coordinated with others to send the letters purporting to be from Morales and threatening to kill Trump or ICE agents, according to prosecutors. “We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans,” one letter said, adding later, “I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in the head,” possibly at a rally. Jailhouse phone calls showed how Scott asked others, including his mother, for help sending letters and finding addresses for the local ICE office and state attorney general, the documents said. “I got a hell of a plan,” he reportedly said in one of the calls. Arnita Scott told CNN she confirmed to investigators that her son had mailed her some letters but said she did not know what was in the envelopes. “I don’t know what that’s all about,” she said of the new allegations against her son. Those allegations include a May 16 phone call from jail, in which Scott referred to the main witness in his upcoming criminal trial, according to a criminal compliant: “We can go into court and say, ‘Hey, he’s in custody now — um, there is no reason for us to even continue the July 15 jury date.’” “And the judge will agree, ’cause if he gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a jury trial, so they will probably dismiss it that day,” he said of the robbery and aggravated battery case. “That’s my plan.” Asked about the allegations against her son, Arnita Scott said: “He ain’t got money to get around the damn corner on a bus.” During a search of Scott’s jail cell, investigators found a blue pen – matching the color of ink used in the letters – as well as a note asking for the attorney general’s address and an envelope with the address and phone number for the ICE office, according to prosecutors. After he was questioned by police, Scott allegedly called his mother and told her about his confession. “The detective was like, ‘Well, whatever your plan was, it worked … cause he got deported now because we had to go pick him up,’” Scott allegedly said of Morales, according to court documents. At a court appearance last week, Scott wore an orange jumpsuit and said nothing. Barry Phillips, the court commissioner, said it was “the definition of ingenuity” to try “to get that person arrested and potentially deported so he could not testify against you.” Scott smiled twice as the commissioner spoke of his plan. “But what was unintelligent was the fact that everything you did was recorded by telephone,” Phillips told Scott, who was no longer smiling. Noem and DHS have not issued a correction or update on the matter and its news release on Morales remains on its website. “As a result of the defendant’s actions, (Morales) faces the possibility of removal from this country,” Scott’s charging documents said, adding that Morales “did not consent to anyone using his name and address in the sending of letters” in his name. A potential ‘chilling effect’ It’s unclear what the new charges against Scott mean for Morales’ fate in the country where he has lived more than half his life. Cain Oulahan, his immigration attorney, said Scott’s alleged confession “may help a little” in his client’s deportation case because it shows he’s not a danger to the community. But Morales’ attorneys are concerned that if their client is deported before Scott’s July trial, the robbery and battery case could fall apart. Morales’ family has received death threats since his detention, according to activists working with the family. CNN has reached out to Morales’ wife for comment. Morales has applied for a visa meant to protect undocumented immigrants who were victims in a crime, allowing them to remain in the US while they are cooperating with authorities, according to his attorney. But those visas typically take years to get approved and the government only allows a limited number. His arrest and subsequent publicity in this case, Oulahan said, could end up harming undocumented immigrants who are crime victims. “It’s going to have a chilling effect if people are not willing to come forward,” Oulahan said. A Department of Homeland Security official conceded Wednesday that Morales is no longer under investigation for threats against Trump. The official said Morales “will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings as he is in the country illegally with previous arrests for felony hit and run, criminal damage to property, and disorderly conduct with a domestic abuse modifier.” Morales’ attorneys said they were still looking into the outcomes of those cases. In its original release on Morales’ arrest, DHS said he “entered the U.S. illegally at least nine times between 1998-2005.” Milwaukee investigators were trying to determine whether Morales had been set up several days before Noem publicly linked him to the letters. Milwaukee Police Department records obtained by CNN showed investigators had spoken with Morales on May 22 – the day he was arrested – about the potential of someone trying to get him deported. Police then began investigating the jailhouse phone calls from Scott. Noem tweeted her accusation that Morales-Reyes threatened Trump on May 28. ‘I don’t know how to spell it. It’s Ramon Morales’ Details about two men whose disparate lives intersected on a September afternoon in 2023 have emerged from court transcripts and statements from attorneys and family members. “I came here when President Ronald Reagan was in office,” said Morales, speaking through an interpreter at Scott’s criminal trial last year. “Life is hard here,” Morales said at one point. “It’s a rough life.” Helmi Hamad, the assistant state public defender who represented Scott, asked Morales what kind of jobs he worked. Morales said restaurants. “By me asking that, I didn’t mean any disrespect. My parents are immigrants, too. They came to the United States and worked as you did. So I just wanted to make sure you’re aware of that, me asking these questions,” Hamad told Morales. When Morales first took the stand, the court clerk asked him to state and spell his first and last name. “I don’t know how to spell it. It’s Ramon Morales,” he responded, before testifying that he has been in Milwaukee more than 20 years and lived in California for 18 years. He told jurors the day of the assault he was riding a bike his wife got him “because of my diabetes. My doctor said that I could go and exercise on my bike.” She had paid $20 for the used bike. Morales testified that Scott approached him on the street, hurling insults and trying to take the bike. “I was afraid,” he said. He pedaled away and Scott caught up to him several blocks later. “Then he started hitting me.” “I don’t understand what he’s saying,” Morales said of Scott. Part of the encounter was captured on a nearby doorbell camera. “I cry for help, and I say, ‘Help me,’” Morales told the jury. “I wanted to save my bike because I love it,” he said. Morales said Scott pulled “a knife or a blade” and cut him under his left armpit. He was later treated for a lung abrasion at a hospital. At another point, Scott threatened him with a brick, Morales told jurors. At a news conference last week, another attorney representing Morales, Kime Abduli, described him as “a very humble person. Soft spoken.” She said he washes dishes for a living and is a hard worker focused on supporting his children. “That’s really been his motive in being” in the US. Morales married in 1999, and has three US-born children. ‘He never got the cocaine out of his system’ Police arrested Scott several hours after Morales’ bike was stolen. Scott took the stand at his 2024 trial, telling the jury the bike was his and that it had been stolen two days before his encounter with Morales. He testified he was with a prostitute when he purchased the bike on the street about two weeks earlier for $20 in cash and $20 worth of crack. Scott said Morales was the aggressor and that he “accidentally cut him” with a “corkscrew.” On cross-examination, assistant district attorney James Griffin asked Scott, “You just had 20 bucks of crack on you?” “I did,” Scott replied. “You were using back then?” “Yes.” “Daily?” “Pretty much.” Scott testified that he “hadn’t used any crack or drink” the afternoon he saw Morales on the bike. Arnita Scott, 76, told CNN her son dropped out of high school midway through the ninth grade. He worked at a McDonald’s for a while. “He worked a couple of jobs but he don’t stay at no job long,” she said. After learning he had smoked crack cocaine for the first time at 15, she said, she moved her family out of the housing project. Their neighborhood changed. Her son didn’t. “He never got that cocaine out of his system, ” Arnita Scott said. “Once somebody got him hooked when he was 15 years old, I never had no luck trying to get my buddy straight. He would do good for a while and then fall.” At trial, outside the presence of the jury, attorneys and the judge discussed Scott’s criminal convictions dating to 2000 for battery, disorderly conduct, third-degree sexual assault, second-degree recklessly endangering safety and other charges. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that in 2010 Scott was charged with felony murder for beating and kicking to death a man named Steve Allen. Court records show Scott pleaded guilty a year later to second-degree recklessly endangering safety. He was sentenced to five years in prison and five years extended probation. Arnita Scott said she has pleaded with court officials for years to get her son – one of five children – into a drug treatment program. “I tell them, ‘Will you all please get my son some help? He’s on drugs.’ And they told me ain’t nothing they can do,” she said. “They can’t make him take no drug program … They just say, ‘If he wants to stop, he has to stop on his own. We can’t make him stop.’” At the 2024 trial, with the jury not present, Scott had to be removed from the courtroom after yelling out, “F**k you,” at the prosecutor during a discussion of the type of bike that was stolen. The judge admonished Scott, saying, “You’re going to be removed from the courtroom.” “I wouldn’t really care no more,” Scott told the judge. “I was about to get naked anyway.” Scott insisted that prosecutors had the wrong bike in court. “That ain’t the damn bike,” he said before being led away. “I still got the bike.” The next day, Scott explained his outburst. “I just felt like I am the one facing all the time, and I was not included in any way, right, like nothing I either said or wanted mattered,” he told the court. “I am the one who could go to prison, so I felt excluded. It was just pissing me off. So I was mad at everybody except the clerk.” Arnita Scott spoke with her son on the phone last week after the new charges were filed. She said Scott has had two heart attacks in jail and recently had heart surgery. “He started telling me that he didn’t want to come home because he was scared if he come home, that he might smoke again,” she recalled. “He said, ‘I don’t know how strong I am.’ And he said he scared that he might use again … and he’s going to die.” She added, “I told him he can’t stress himself out or he’s going to have another heart attack. Whatever is going to happen, he got to let go.”