Key tests not done after Boyd shooting
No reconstruction of shooting or bullet trajectory analysis done
The primary Albuquerque police detective charged with collecting evidence at the scene of the James Boyd shooting by police in 2014 never tried to reconstruct how the shooting occurred or identify which officer fired which bullet.
“There were too many unknowns for me to determine exactly what happened,” Nathan Render told the jury Monday afternoon in the trial of two former APD officers charged in the fatal shooting of the homeless, mentally ill camper after a 3½-hour police standoff.
Former officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez face second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. They contend they shot Boyd because he was posing a threat to another officer who got too close to him.
Ordinarily in police crime scene investigations,
Render testified, tests are performed to find out who shot the victim and from what direction. He said he didn’t attempt to find out which officer’s bullet struck what part of Boyd’s body.
Render, who was a crime scene detective then, but is now a field services officer, also chose not to do a bullet trajectory analysis.
“As far as a specific trajectory, we didn’t have two points of reference, so I didn’t feel comfortable making that determination,” he said.
Attorney Elicia Montoya, who is part of the special prosecutor team, asked if Render tried to obtain the statements of Sandy and Perez for more information about where they were standing at the time of the shooting.
“I believe I could have talked to the case agent ... for their statements,” he replied, but he didn’t elaborate.
“Would it have been uncomfortable, or not, to investigate an officer you work with ... ,” Montoya asked. Render replied, “No.”
Render said he has investigated other officer-involved shootings and those that didn’t involve police officers “in the same manner.”
Render’s testimony resumes today in state District Court in Albuquerque.
Earlier Monday, a forensic consultant who had investigated the Columbine High School massacre for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in 1999 testified that Boyd had initiated a turn to the left when Sandy fired the initial three shots that evening about 7:30 p.m.
The prosecution’s theory is that Boyd was surrendering when shot, although he still had knives in both hands.
Barie Goetz, the state’s forensic consultant, testified that his review of the evidence showed Sandy fired from more than 12 feet from Boyd. The bullets struck Boyd’s left arm and right arm, and the third bullet entered Boyd’s five layers of clothing, hitting his right arm again.
Perez followed up with the fourth round, fired from about 29 feet away, Goetz testified, hitting Boyd in the lower back as he was falling to the ground.
On cross-examination by Sandy’s attorney, Sam Bregman, Goetz conceded his testimony Monday was different from how he testified at a preliminary hearing in the case in 2015.
Goetz said he looked at photographs of the evidence afterward “that certainly showed my error.”
Last year, Goetz testified that the third bullet fired by Sandy missed Boyd, but, on Monday, Goetz said the bullet penetrated “at least the outer fabric of the right arm of his five layers of clothing.”
Under questioning by Perez’s attorney David Roman, Goetz said he thought it would take a “fraction of a second” for a bullet to travel 12 feet, the distance from Sandy to Boyd.
Earlier Monday, jurors heard testimony about a State Police recording of a pre-shooting conversation between Sandy and a State Police sergeant called to Boyd’s foothill campsite at the end of Copper Road, east of Tramway.
Now retired State Police Sgt. Chris Ware testified that Sandy arrived on the scene shortly after he did and started suiting up with his police tactical ballistics vest, rifle and other equipment.
Sandy, a member of the now-disbanded specialized repeat offender unit, originally went to the scene to deliver a Taser shotgun requested by a sergeant supervising the police officers trying to negotiate with the knife-wielding Boyd.
When Sandy learned State Police had been called at Boyd’s request, Sandy said, “For this (expletive) lunatic?”
According to a transcript shown to jurors, Sandy then told Ware he planned to shoot Boyd with the Taser shotgun, which is a less lethal way to subdue a suspect.
The conversation was recorded on Ware’s State Police dash camera and he testified he didn’t recall telling Sandy that they were being recorded.
Ware testified that he and Sandy knew each other from coaching Little League. Ware said they also worked “together for quite a while” in the State Police.
Sandy was hired by APD after being fired by State Police in 2007 over a timecard fraud scandal.
On cross-examination, Ware said he didn’t believe Sandy intended to use deadly force against Boyd. He also testified that he and Sandy sometimes used inappropriate language in their casual banter.