FILE - Crime tape surrounds a damaged vehicle rented and used by U.S. Border Patrol, at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol shooting of two people at building three of Adventist Health on the 10200 block of Southeast Main Street in Portland on Jan. 8, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
A Venezuelan man shot by a federal immigration officer earlier this year while fleeing a traffic stop in Portland pleaded guilty Monday to a single felony: depredation of federal property, for totaling the federal government’s rental car.
The plea offers a pathway to a potentially lighter sentence for Luis Nino-Moncada than the government’s initial charges stemming from the Jan. 8 incident.
At the time, then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed Nino-Moncada would be “met with the full force of this Justice Department.” The Department of Homeland Security sought to connect Nino-Moncada to a Venezuelan criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. He was also charged with assaulting a federal officer.
Neither the assault charge nor gang connections were referenced in the plea agreement or by prosecutors in court Monday. The plea document states, “the parties believe defendant has no criminal history convictions,” and recommends a sentencing of time served and a year of supervised release.
Nino-Moncada admitted Monday he was in the United States unlawfully and agreed not to fight deportation.
The incident occurred on the afternoon of Jan. 8 as Nino-Moncada drove Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras to an appointment at Adventist Health in East Portland. U.S. Border Patrol officers pulled in behind their red Toyota Tacoma pickup.
Six officers exited their vehicles, parking a black Hyundai sedan rental behind the pickup.
FILE - Images of the red Toyota Tacoma truck driven by Luis Nino-Moncada included in a U.S. Department of Justice court filing on Monday, Jan. 12, 2-26. Moncada was one of two people shot in Portland by the U.S. Border Patrol on Jan. 8, 2026.
Images via U.S Department of Justice court filing
Nino-Moncada believed they were ICE officers. He drove the pickup forcefully into the sedan “several times in an attempt to flee,” according to the plea agreement. “Then, a federal officer fired his service weapon at defendant after defendant had backed into the Hyundai Sonata and caused damage.”
Nino-Moncada, who appeared in court Monday, sat between his attorneys and translator.
“I agree that the government could prove that,” Nino-Moncada said.
“I will accept your plea of guilty,” U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut replied.
The Oregon U.S. Attorney’s office noted that any remaining charges would officially get dismissed at sentencing.
Oregon’s Federal Public Defender, which is representing Nino-Moncada, declined to comment following Monday’s hearing.
As part of pleading guilty, Nino-Moncada agreed to pay $24,413 in restitution. However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Edmonds said in court “it was still being worked out whether it was the U.S. government or the entity the government got the vehicle from” that would receive the money.
Nino-Moncada is set to be sentenced Sept. 16.
As part of Monday’s agreement, Nino-Moncada also admitted an immigration judge in Denver had ordered his removal from the U.S. in 2024. The plea document notes that a conviction of an aggravated felony “makes it practically inevitable and a virtual certainty that the defendant will be removed or deported from the United States.”
The passenger in the red pickup, Zambrano-Contreras, admitted in January to a federal misdemeanor for improperly entering the U.S. two years ago.
