Murder trial on hold over autopsy witness

Public defender tries to have case tossed; judge says state may have to go to Texas to get examiner’s testimony

A New Mexico district judge has postponed the murder trial for Robert Mondrian-Powell, initially set to start in April, because lawyers can’t get a former state medical investigator to testify on an autopsy report that says the cause of the death in the case is “undetermined.”

Lauren Edelman, a former pathology fellow who trained at the state Office of the Medical Investigator but now lives in Texas, told prosecutors she would not return to New Mexico to give testimony in Mondrian-Powell’s case because prosecutors couldn’t meet her price, District Attorney Marco Serna told The New Mexican last week.

Edelman examined the body of Elvira Segura, the longtime girlfriend of Mondrian-Powell, whom he is accused of killing at her home in Nambé in September 2016.

Prosecutors argue that Segura died as a result of being shot in the neck by Mondrian-Powell.

But Edelman’s autopsy concluded her cause of death couldn’t be determined.

“Although the circumstances of Ms. Segura’s death indicate violence, there is no concrete evidence of this upon physical examination of her remains,” Edelman’s report says. The report lists heart disease and consumption of rubbing alcohol and amphetamines as potential causes of death.

State prosecutor Kevin Nault told District Court Judge T. Glenn Ellington during a status hearing Tuesday that the state was prepared to go to trial even without Edelman’s testimony.

But Jennifer Burrill, the public defender representing Mondrian-Powell, said she considers the former investigator a key witness in the case.

Burrill filed a motion in court Monday asking Ellington to dismiss the murder case against Mondrian-Powell because Edelman won’t testify. She also cited issues with evidence disclosure, and the state’s timing, raised in a past motion.

In the motion, Burrill argued that the state made a number of missteps in trying to secure Edelman’s testimony — including delaying her interview until after she had already left the state, messing up a subpoena and claiming financial hardship without any proof.

Burrill cited a New Mexican story in which Serna said the state could not afford to have Edelman testify at $400 an hour. That’s an argument prosecutors have never made in court, she said.

All in all, it amounts to the “state’s failure to disclose favorable, material evidence,” Burrill argued in the motion.

In a response filed Tuesday, the state argued that Edelman’s testimony would not be evidence in and of itself. Prosecutors also pointed out that Edelman did leave a report detailing her findings during the autopsy and that defense attorneys never made their own attempts to interview her.

“The State has also taken extraordinary action to make arrangements for the defense to do its investigation,” Nault wrote, “while Defendant has sat on his rights and merely complained that the State was not investigating his case to his satisfaction.”

In Tuesday’s status conference, Ellington did not hear arguments on the motion to dismiss the case. He did, however, postpone the trial because of the back-and-forth over the OMI testimony.

Ellington also ordered Nault to get new subpoena paperwork in order for Edelman’s testimony by next week.

And he told the attorneys they might have to go to Texas, and bear the costs of taking Edelman’s testimony in person.

Ellington did not set a new start date for the trial. He did mention, however, that it could be pushed as far back as August or September.

Mondrian-Powell, in the meantime, has been in jail for over 17 months awaiting trial. His bond was set at $500,000 cash only during a hearing in Magistrate Court five days after his arrest in October 2016, The New Mexican reported.