Cruces prosecutor moves to try Chan again
He turned himself in after arrest warrant was issued
District Attorney Mark D’Antonio of Las Cruces is refusing to accept defeat in the case of a former Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputy who fatally shot fellow Deputy Jeremy Martin while the two lawmen were in Southern New Mexico on a work trip in 2014.
Tai Chan, who says he acted in selfdefense when he shot Martin after an alcohol-fueled argument in their Las Cruces hotel room, has survived multiple attempts to prosecute him for the killing.
But D’Antonio on Friday filed a new case in Doña Ana County Magistrate Court, charging Chan with voluntary manslaughter.
The prosecutor also obtained a new arrest warrant for Chan, who has been out of jail for the past four years while
the cases against him were pending. Chan’s attorney, John Day of Santa Fe, characterized the district attorney’s move as a vindictive and unprofessional abuse of power for which he will seek to have D’Antonio sanctioned.
“It’s clear they are persecuting Tai Chan,” Day said Friday. “All he did was act in self-defense when he was attacked by Jeremy Martin. There is no dispute that Martin fired the first shot.”
Day said late Friday that Chan had turned himself into the Sandoval County sheriff voluntarily, was taken into custody and will likely be arraigned Monday.
Evidence showed Chan shot Martin in the back as he fled the hotel room, and Chan twice stood trial on murder charges. Both times juries were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Following those mistrials, a special prosecutor was appointed, but he ended up dropping the murder case and suggested Chan instead should be indicted on a count of voluntary manslaughter.
After D’Antonio’s office brought a voluntary manslaughter charge against Chan, state District Judge Conrad Perea threw out that case last month, citing violation of Chan’s due process rights in a charging document filed by D’Antonio’s office and the office’s failure to follow court rules.
D’Antonio’s office said at the time his office would refile the charge, which it did Friday. But Day said filing the case in Magistrate Court was an attempt by D’Antonio to do an “end run” around the District Court by presenting it to a judge who may not be familiar with the whole history of the case.
Day said D’Antonio “is mad at the [district] judge, but he’s taking it out on Tai, which is clearly unprofessional.”
D’Antonio’s spokeswoman, Roxanne McElmell, said Friday she had been told there was “new forensic evidence,” but she couldn’t say specifically what it was — a statement Day disputed.
“What’s new here is the bruised ego of an unprofessional prosecutor,” Day said.
McElmell said D’Antonio’s office isn’t to blame for the fact that the prosecutor had to refile charges.
“The reality of it is the district attorney is not the one who dropped the ball,” the spokeswoman said. “Judge Macias, who handled the case the second time, is the one who screwed it up.”
District Judge Fernando Macias presided over the second murder trial. Before the special prosecutor then dropped the murder case against Chan, Day argued that Macias did not comply with the law because he did not correctly poll the jury on each possible count, failing to create a “clear record” of the proceedings.
Attempts to obtain comment Friday evening from D’Antonio on Day’s allegations that the district attorney is letting his personal feelings influence his handling of the case were unsuccessful.