Prosecutors fight venue change plea in White murder case
Defense: Media coverage, popularity of slain basketball player makes it impossible for fair trial in Santa Fe
Prosecutors are objecting to a changeof-venue motion filed earlier this month in the case of a teen accused of fatally shooting Santa Fe High School basketball star Fedonta “JB” White.
Prosecutors contend the defense attorney for 17-year-old Estevan Montoya has offered no evidence a Santa Fe venue would make it impossible for the defendant to receive a fair trial.
Montoya is charged with first-degree murder, unlawful carrying of a firearm, tampering with evidence and negligent use of a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting on Aug. 1 at an alcohol-fueled house party in Chupadero.
Witnesses have said White was shot after he and Montoya were involved in an altercation.
White, 18, was one of the most highly recruited basketball players in Northern New Mexico in decades, and he was about to attend the University of New Mexico to play for the Lobos.
Montoya is being charged as an adult.
Montoya’s defense attorney, Dan Marlowe, filed the motion Dec. 7, arguing that due to the publicity surrounding the case, future hearings should be moved to Los Alamos.
Marlowe asserted in his motion “the attention that this case draws would be less extreme in Los Alamos,” and that residents in Santa Fe “rushed to judgment about the culpability of this defendant.”
“The likelihood of his [Montoya] receiving a fair trial in Los Alamos would be higher than if he were to be tried in Santa Fe because of his position in the community and because of the publicity attached to this case, in additional to the huge popularity of the victim,” Marlowe wrote.
Marlowe also noted that previous mentions of youth gangs and Montoya’s potential connection to one of them would incite local residents.
In response, Chief Deputy District Attorney Blake Nichols said in a Dec. 22 response that Marlowe failed to present any evidence alluding to the need to move the case, outside of an affidavit he submitted.
Nichols said the defense failed to provide any evidence of community bias or prejudice, or how Los Alamos, which prosecutors say is largely in the same media jurisdiction as Santa Fe County, would be a better location.
“Defendant provides no examples or argument that media coverage in this case is either widespread or anything other than accurate and neutral,” the motion reads. “He makes no argument at all about the timing of that media coverage in relation to the scheduled trial date, months in the future. And he fails to explain how moving the case to Los Alamos, within largely the same media market, would make any difference whatsoever.”
Nichols added that even if the defendant provided proof of publicity, that by itself would not warrant granting a change-of-venue motion.