Jury trial delayed over virus concerns

Defense attorney’s nanny tests positive for COVID-19

State District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer halted a jury trial this week in a 2018 hit-and-run death after the defendant’s attorney said his child’s nanny had tested positive for COVID-19.

The revelation renewed concerns about holding in-person court proceedings during the pandemic.

What was expected to be a twoweek vehicular homicide trial started Tuesday and was halted Wednesday morning. Sommer scheduled it to resume Oct. 30.

Edgar Alejandro Mendez, 42, faces multiple charges — including homicide by vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death and aggravated battery on a peace officer — in connection with the death of Jose Duran Rodriguez on June 7, 2018.

Mendez is accused of veering into a Ford Explorer carrying Rodriguez as he was driving a stolen truck on Airport Road.

Mendez’s attorney, Sam Ruyle, said in an interview Thursday his wife had sent him a text message Wednesday morning notifying him that their infant son’s nanny had tested positive for the virus. Ruyle said he immediately informed the court and left the First Judicial District courthouse in Santa Fe.

No one in his household was experiencing symptoms, Ruyle said, but he and his co-counsel, Shelby Bradley, had been tested for the virus and were awaiting results.

Sommer did not respond to a message seeking comment about the trial.

District Attorney Marco Serna said two prosecutors, a victim’s advocate and one other staff member from his office who were participating in the trial were sent home to self-isolate until the defense attorneys received their test results.

If either Ruyle or Bradley tests positive for the virus, Serna said, his

staff will be tested as well and ordered to quarantine for 14 days.

This is the second trial in recent weeks that has been complicated by the coronavirus.

Jury deliberations in the rape trial of defendant Marlon Henry have been postponed twice since the trial ended Oct. 2, once after a juror said he had taken a weekend trip out of state and again after another juror was feeling ill and went to a hospital.

Jurors were scheduled to resume deliberations Friday.

Ruyle, who also is Henry’s defense attorney, said the three-week lapse between attorneys’ closing arguments and jury deliberations is unprecedented. The scenario creates a “wealth of issues for appeal,” he added.

Serna also said the lengthy delay in deliberations is concerning.

“I pray they recall everything my office presented during the prosecution of the case,” he said. “The process needs to be fair for all parties involved … and I don’t think these types of situations, where we are having to stop in the middle, are providing that fairness for both sides.”

Serna said the two trial interruptions underscore concerns prosecutors, public defenders and private attorneys raised when the state Supreme Court ordered district courts to resume jury trials in July amid the pandemic.

The first trial scheduled in the First Judicial District, a murder trial in Tierra Amarilla, ended in a mistrial on its opening day after the defense attorney told the court she’d recently had contact with COVID-19 patients while volunteering in a medical setting. That trial has not been reset. Serna said he thinks it’s fine for a court to hold a one- or two-day trial but said longer trials in more complex cases, such as homicides, should be more carefully considered.

“We’ve been contacted by jurors who say they are afraid to come to court, and they don’t want to get an arrest warrant if they fail to show up,” he said.