Man convicted in officer’s death files appeal
Attorney alleges that heavy media coverage on the case prejudiced jurors
Andrew Romero, the man convicted in the death of a Rio Rancho police officer, has filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court, citing more than a dozen issues that he says resulted in an unfair trial.
Romero’s defense attorney, Tom Clark, said many of the issues outlined in a list submitted to the state Supreme Court relate to the heavy media coverage the case received and the impact that publicity may have had on jurors.
A jury convicted Romero in September of firstdegree murder and lesser charges in the May 2015 shooting death of Rio Rancho police officer Gregg “Nigel” Benner. Romero was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus 60 years.
Although 13th Judicial District Judge George Eichwald permitted the trial to move from Sandoval County to Valencia County, Clark said the trial still took place within the Albuquerque media market, where coverage of Benner’s death and Romero’s criminal case was relentless.
“He didn’t go far enough in the change of venue,” Clark said in an interview, adding that in a county farther from the Albuquerque media market, potential jurors might not be reading the news out of Albuquerque or “watching this every night on the news.”
The document submitted to the Supreme Court on Jan. 23 argues that the “extensive negative media coverage” meant that potential jurors had “extensive knowledge of the case.”
Also in the list of issues is concern that media coverage may have had an impact on two prosecution witnesses and could have tainted their ability to identify Romero.
The document argues that security at the courthouse was “exceptionally heavy” on the first day of jury selection and that “such a show of armed, paramilitary force by law enforcement and corrections officers was prejudicial to the defendant.”
“Security forces included law enforcement officers and corrections officers in combat gear, armed with automatic weapons,” according to the appeal. “Officers were stationed at the entrance of the courthouse and patrolling each floor. There was also a canine unit on scene.”
The document mentions a recorded phone call which prosecutors said Romero made from a local jail. It argues that there was insufficient basis to establish that the voice in the recording is Romero’s.
Another alleged error included in the list was the decision to allow testimony at trial about robberies that Romero reportedly committed around the time of Benner’s death.
“It painted him out to be kind of a monster,” Clark said. “It was more prejudicial than probative.”
Anyone facing a life sentence receives an automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court.
At Romero’s sentencing hearing, Eichwald said that he had done everything he could to make sure Romero’s trial was fair so that he had “little wiggle room” at appeal. Listing examples, he’d barred incriminating statements that Romero made to police after his arrest, relocated the trial from Sandoval County to Valencia County and gave Romero a “Cadillac defense” team.