On May 21, 2018 Godinez pled not guilty to charges accusing him of shooting an undercover federal agent who was part of a "covert" operation near his house in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Prosecutors alleged that Godinez fired five rounds from the mouth of the gangway toward the agents down the block, striking the victim in the face. Godinez's lawyer, Lawrence Hyman, had ridiculed the evidence in court as "flimsy", noting the video didn’t show that Godinez had a gun that night. On June 17, 2019 a federal jury found Ernesto "Ernie" Godinez, guilty of assault of a federal officer and of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. The jury deliberated less than three hours before finding Godinez guilty of one count each of assaulting an agent with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime stemming from the May 2018 shooting in the gang-infested Back of the Yards neighborhood. Federal prosecutors said surveillance cameras captured Godinez leaving his house at 43rd and Wood moments before the shooting, then walking down an alley toward 44th and Hermitage just before the shooting, and running back through the alley to his house moments after the attack. While the shooting itself was not captured, prosecutors alleged Godinez fired five rounds from the mouth of the gangway toward the group of undercover agents. Shortly after the shooting, prosecutors said Godinez hopped into a car with his girlfriend, Victoria Jean-Baptiste and allegedly told her, "“I feel good . . . f--- that flake.”"