Murder charges tossed in Chan case
Voluntary manslaughter trial to proceed in August for former S.F. deputy who fatally shot co-worker
LAS CRUCES — A Las Cruces judge has dismissed the highest possible murder charges against Tai Chan, a move that means the former Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputy will stand trial in August only on a voluntary manslaughter charge in the 2014 shooting death of fellow Santa Fe County Deputy Jeremy Martin.
The ruling was handed down Thursday by state District Court Judge Conrad Perea during a daylong hearing.
It was perhaps the biggest legal victory for Chan in the nearly 4-year-old case and played into the defense’s theory that the Oct. 28, 2014, shooting was never a premeditated murder case, as portrayed by police and prosecutors.
For Martin’s family, however, the ruling was perceived as yet another setback in their pursuit of justice.
Until Thursday’s ruling, Chan, 31, had been facing first-degree murder charges in Martin’s death, an incident apparently fueled by alcohol that unfolded around midnight in an upscale Las Cruces hotel, where the two men — both off duty at the time — planned to stay overnight while on a work-related trip.
An argument between the men started hours earlier at a pub. It escalated when they returned to the hotel, where they began fighting in their seventh-floor room. A firearm was discharged during the
scuffle — Chan has said Martin fired the first shot — but at some point, Chan gained control of the weapon and began firing at Martin as he ran out their room and down the hallway, shooting him at least five times in the back.
Martin was pronounced dead at a Las Cruces hospital.
Chan’s first two trials, in 2016 and 2017, both ended in mistrials with juries unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of three possible charges: first- or second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.
While both trials had the same conclusion, a technicality at the end of the second trial resulted in Thursday’s dismissal of firstand second-degree murder charges against Chan.
The judge’s dismissal of the charges was based on doublejeopardy arguments from Chan’s defense attorneys. A 2017 New Mexico Supreme Court opinion on deadlocked juries also factored to into Perea’s decision.
About 10 days before jurors in the second trial came to an impasse, the state Supreme Court handed down an opinion, in an unrelated murder case, holding that “the judge must confirm that the jury did not unanimously agree that the defendant was not guilty of one or more of the included offenses.”
The court also held that if “the judge fails to clearly establish on the record the offense(s) on which the jury was deadlocked, all but the lowest offense must be dismissed and the dismissed offense(s) cannot be retried.”
In a 52-page motion, Chan’s attorneys argued that the judge who presided over the first two trials, Fernando Macias, who is now Doña Ana County manager, did not comply with the law in the second trial, when he determined the level of deadlock through notes he exchanged with the jury. The motion also stated that no “clear record” was made of the final poll of jurors to show the guilty-not guilty vote breakdown on each possible charge.
The special prosecutors now assigned to the Chan case — Troy Davis and Devin Chapman of the state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance — did not argue against the defense’s motion to dismiss the first- and second-degree murder charges. Davis called Macias’ failure to poll the jury at the end of the second trial a “travesty.”
Macias, however, defended his actions.
He said Thursday that while he was unaware of the motion in question, “It’s clear to me that everybody was aware of what was occurring; it’s clear to me that everybody was aware of the votes of the jurors on each respective charge.”
Thursday’s decision was a blow to Martin’s family members, including his widow, Sarah Martin, and his brother, James Martin, both of whom attended the hearing.
In a brief interview, James Martin said he was disappointed with Macias, saying the former judge ran the second trial like a “circus” and that he doesn’t believe his brother can get justice in a New Mexico court.
Chan declined to comment on Perea’s ruling, but his attorney said he was relieved.
“Judge Perea is simply doing what the law is requiring him to do,” Santa Fe defense attorney John Day said.
“It’s a huge deal,” Day added, “but it’s also an appropriate way to resolve things. This never was a first-degree murder case; this never was a second-degree murder case.”
Also Thursday, Perea granted a motion to release Chan’s $600,000 property bond and set a lower, $25,000 secured bond. He also allowed Chan to travel from Las Cruces to Santa Fe to visit family and meet with his attorney.
He is not allowed in Sandoval County, where Martin’s widow lives.
Perea will later rule on a pair of motions from the special prosecutors, who are seeking to exclude self-defense in the case and exclude testimony from an expert witness who previously testified at both trials about officer-involved shootings.