Latest Tai Chan case dismissed
Judge cites rules, due process infractions
SANTA FE — A judge has dismissed the latest criminal case against Tai Chan, a former Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputy accused of fatally shooting a fellow deputy in Las Cruces after a night of drinking.
District Court Judge Conrad Perea ruled Friday that the Las Cruces District Attorney’s Office failed to follow court rules and due process when it filed a criminal information on Oct. 2 charging Chan with voluntary manslaughter.
The DA’s office says it will ask Perea to reconsider. The widow of the slain deputy said there likely had been a “law clerk error” in the case.
Chan, 32, already has been tried twice for murder in the death of 29-year-old Jeremy Martin at the Hotel Encanto in Las Cruces. The two deputies were staying there on their way back from delivering a prisoner to Arizona.
Both of Chan’s trials ended in hung juries without a verdict. A third try at a murder charge was abandoned earlier this year, after Judge Perea found that pursuing a murder conviction yet again would constitute double jeopardy.
John Day, one of Chan’s attorneys, said Perea’s Friday ruling against the recent manslaughter charge should end Chan’s prosecution. He said a fifth try at convicting Chan would be “the definition of insanity.”
There was no defense motion seeking the latest dismissal, which Judge Perea undertook on his own. “It’s a pretty strong rebuff of the district attorney,” Day said. He said DA Mark D’Antonio in Las Cruces needs “to stop wasting taxpayer dollars prosecuting an innocent man.”
D’Antonio, in a statement provided by his staff, said the state disagrees with Perea’s ruling “and is filing a response and motion to reconsider the court’s order purely on perceived procedural concerns.”
On the night of Oct. 24, 2014, Martin and Chan argued and drank heavily at a bar and then returned to their room at the Hotel Encanto. Martin died after being shot five times in the back and arm. Ten shots were fired from Chan’s duty weapon. But who shot the gun first and who was the aggressor were disputed at trial.
Chan maintains the shooting was in self-defense. “They should stop persecuting Tai for defending himself,” Day said Friday.
Sarah Martin, the slain deputy’s widow, said in a statement Friday, “Jeremy was shot in the hallway of a full hotel and every shot went into Jeremy’s back. Chan hunted Jeremy down, pursued him, shot 10 rounds at him from behind. That’s not self-defense that’s execution. While Chan carried out this deliberate execution he carelessly endangered the lives of many others. How could we not continue to pursue justice?”
She also said: “We understand the latest dismissal was likely a law clerk error. We fully expect charges to be filed again and appreciate the DA’s commitment to justice and our family.”
In Friday’s dismissal order, Perea noted that D’Antonio’s office had failed to go to a grand jury or a preliminary court hearing to determine whether there was “probable cause” for bringing a new case against Chan.
Perea also cited part of the state’s Rules of Criminal Procedure that calls for a written statement from the district attorney “containing the essential facts” of a case. The criminal information filed by a senior trial prosecutor in D’Antonio’s office charging Chan provided the date of the alleged crime of voluntary manslaughter and identified Martin as the victim but had no details of what happened.
“Filing this Criminal Information based on prior testimony of trial witnesses is not sufficient and violates notions of procedural and substantive due process,” Perea wrote.
“These eyewitnesses gave testimony based upon charges of First and Second Degree Murder. They clearly did not testify as to the facts in consideration of Voluntary Manslaughter, i.e., testimony did not address the statutory elements of Manslaughter.”
Perea dismissed the criminal information “without prejudice,” meaning a charge can be refiled.
Late last year, D’Antonio appointed two lawyers from the state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance as special prosecutors to take over the Chan case. After the two mistrials on murder charges, he said, “fresh eyes” would help.
In August, one of those appointed prosecutors, Troy J. Davis, had the case dismissed. In his court filing, Davis said Chan “possibly needs to be re-indicted for Voluntary Manslaughter with a firearm enhancement.” Davis was reacting to ruling in May by Judge Perea, who found against further prosecution of Chan for murder on double jeopardy grounds.
Perea ruled that another judge who presided over Chan’s second trial had erred by failing to poll jurors to clear up questions about their impasse on a range of charges from first-degree murder to manslaughter. When special prosecutor Davis dropped the case, he said dismissing and then starting a new case with re-indictment of Chan for voluntary manslaughter would resolve the legal issues.