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The lawyer of the man charged with shooting and killing a man south of Albert Lea last August said he plans to challenge the probable cause of all five charges against his client.

Ben Vidal Moreno, 33, appeared Thursday in front of Freeborn County District Court Judge Christy Hormann in the case. He faces two counts of second-degree murder, one count of attempted second-degree murder and two counts of ineligible possession of a firearm in the death of Juan Vasquez Jr.

Court documents state Vasquez died from a single gunshot wound to the chest on Aug. 9 outside of a residence at 75463 160th St. According to authorities, there had been a dispute between Moreno and Vasquez over a package of methamphetamine that Moreno reportedly diverted from Vasquez.

After the reported shooting, Moreno reportedly fled the scene with two others and was ultimately arrested at a house in rural Forest City, Iowa, on Aug. 11.

Hormann stated Moreno’s lawyer, Andrew Leone, will have until Aug. 25 to submit his brief about probable cause, after which the state prosecution, led by Assistant Attorney General John Gross, will have two weeks to respond.

In the same time period, Gross will also submit a brief regarding Spreigl evidence, or the admissibility of Moreno’s prior criminal acts, after which Leone will respond.

After both sides have submitted briefs regarding both issues, the judge will make a decision about them.

Leone also asked the judge to consider a conditional bail option, as Moreno has been held on $1 million unconditional bail, without a conditional bail option, since he was arrested.

He recommended an unconditional bail of $1 million and conditional bail at $500,000.

Assistant Attorney General John Gross said when the initial bail was set Moreno was facing manslaughter charges, but the charges have since been upgraded. He said Moreno also has other serious felonies, and he suggested a $1.5 million unconditional bail and a $1 million conditional bail.

Hormann said she has to look at public safety and concerns for flight risk when considering bail, noting Moreno has a history of warrants for failure to appear, and she has concerns that if he posted bail, he might not return to court for his future hearings, especially noting that he had fled to Iowa after the alleged offense took place.

“He’s demonstrated he may take off, quite frankly,” Hormann said.

She set unconditional bail at Gross’s recommendations of $1.5 million without conditions and $1 million with conditions. If Moreno posts the conditional bail option, one of the conditions would include wearing a GPS ankle monitor because of his risk for fleeing, she said.

Moreno’s pre-trial is slated for Oct. 26 with the jury trial to begin Nov. 13. The lawyers estimated the trial to take one to two days for jury selection, five to six days for the state to present its case and one to two days for possible defense rebuttal.