DA seeks third Chan trial
Family of slain deputy supports move but suggests venue should be changed
“We feel this is what justice demands — for Deputy Martin and the family he left behind. While there are a few important matters that still must be addressed, we are fully committed to moving forward with this case.” District Attorney Mark D’Antonio
Prosecutors in Las Cruces are pursuing a third murder trial for former Santa Fe County Deputy Tai Chan, whose earlier trials in the shooting death of a fellow deputy after a night of drinking and arguing ended in mistrials.
Unable to come to an unanimous decision, two juries deadlocked over whether 30-year-old Chan is guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Deputy Jeremy Martin, 29, at a Las Cruces hotel during a work-related trip in October 2014.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Gerald Byers of the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office recently filed a notice of intent to retry the case in state District Court in Las Cruces.
“After consulting extensively with the family of Deputy Jeremy Martin, we have decided to pursue a third trial in the case against Mr. Chan,” District Attorney Mark D’Antonio said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “We feel this is what justice demands — for Deputy Martin and the family he left behind. While there are a few important matters that still must be addressed, we are fully committed to moving forward with this case.”
D’Antonio’s decision comes less than two weeks after a two-week trial ended May 23 when some of the jurors accepted the defense’s claim that Chan acted in self-defense when he fired his handgun at Martin, hitting him five times from behind, after wresting the gun away from Martin during an altercation in their shared hotel room.
Leading up to the second trial, the Las Cruces Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office came under scrutiny after a former police detective accused her bosses of hindering the investigation into the killing. Prosecutor Ross “Rusty” Prindle resigned a few days before the second trial ended.
Damien Willis, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office in Las Cruces, said Tuesday he couldn’t discuss why Prindle resigned because it is a personnel matter.
Martin’s brother on Tuesday issued a statement saying his family supports D’Antonio’s decision to retry the case. But the statement also questioned whether the family can get justice in a Las Cruces courtroom.
“We are hopeful we will get a guilty verdict in the retrial of Tai Chan for shooting Jeremy in the back while he ran for his life,” the family’s statement said. “As for the venue, because of the amount of false and misleading statements made by the defense to the media, we have not felt that Jeremy could get justice in Las Cruces.”
One of Chan’s lawyers, John Day of Santa Fe, said Tuesday that he and his client are ready if the district attorney follows through on scheduling a third trial.
“The last two juries have looked at this, and none of them have been willing to convict Tai Chan,” Day said in a phone interview. “I think the split on these juries shows that reasonable people can differ on what happened that night.”
According to evidence presented during the trials, the deputies had stopped in Las Cruces after transporting a prisoner to Arizona, and they had drinks at several bars and restaurants prior to the shooting.