Judge in Nambé case rejects request to recuse himself
Defense claimed overseer of murder trial improperly communicated with prosecutors
State District Judge T. Glenn Ellington on Monday denied a request by the Public Defender’s Office that he recuse himself from presiding over the murder case against a man accused of killing a former Santa Fe librarian last year at her Nambé home.
The judge rejected a defense assertion that he had improperly communicated with prosecutors in the case, in which Robert Mondrian-Powell is charged with killing Elvira Segura, with whom he lived in her Nambé home.
Defense attorneys said Ellington held a hearing at which he granted a motion to quash subpoenas without notifying the defendant or his lawyers, depriving Mondrian-Powell of due process.
Because of the “improper communication,” Public Defender Jennifer Burrill said in court Monday, “it’s hard for Mr. Mondrian-Powell to believe he’s going to get a fair trial.”
Assistant District Attorney Todd Bullion opposed the defense motion, saying the Public Defender’s Office had “illegally” filed the subpoenas, contrary to an order in the case setting procedures for witness interviews.
Ellington said Burrill’s argument “rings hollow” and denied her claim that the hearing had amounted to exparte communications. The judge said the state had filed the motion to quash subpoenas as an “emergency” motion and that one of Burrill’s colleagues from the Public Defender’s Office had been called in from the hallway to represent the client in Burrill’s place.
The real issue, the judge said, is the contentious relationship between the lawyers on the case, which is scheduled to go to trial next month, noting that he already has had to conduct several motions hearings on routine discovery matters.
Police said Segura’s body was found decomposing in her bathroom weeks after she was beaten and shot in September. Investigators tracked MondrianPowell to Las Cruces, where he was arrested after having abandoned Segura’s vehicle in Southern New Mexico.
But, as Burrill reiterated Monday, the state medical examiner still has not definitively determined how the 67-year-old woman died.
“Although the circumstances of Ms. Segura’s death indicate violence, there is no concrete evidence of this upon physical examination of her remains,” a summary of an autopsy report said.