‘IT MAKES NO SENSE’
Prosecutors assail outing OK’d by pre-trial services
Sister of teenage girl who was almost beaten to death in her home is stunned to see Justin Hansen just a few feet away at an Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game while he awaits sentencing.
As he awaits sentencing next month in the 2008 beating that nearly killed a Cibola High School girl, prosecutors say Justin Hansen spent Saturday at an Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game.
Also out to enjoy the game, coincidentally, was Jennifer Marcell, whose then-17 year-old sister, Brittani, was left blind in one eye and deaf in one ear as a result of that attack, which went unsolved for nearly a decade.
Hansen obtained prior permission from pretrial services to attend the game, but prosecutors on Tuesday filed a request asking the court to stop him from leaving home except when necessary to his or his family’s life, health, employment or schooling.
In an interview Tuesday, Jennifer Marcell said she was stunned to see Hansen, wearing sunglasses, a gray T-shirt and an ankle monitor, standing just 10 feet away from her.
“He pled, we had a little bit of relief there,” Jennifer Marcell said. “Now to know he’s out living a normal life again while the rest of us are just waiting for him to be taken off the streets for good, it makes no sense.”
Hansen pleaded no contest in April to attempted murder and aggravated burglary, and he is facing up to 18 years in prison. In the meantime, he is out of custody on court-ordered conditions of release that require him to stay home except to take his children to school or leave with pretrial services approval.
In the motion filed Tuesday, prosecutors asked the court to review Hansen’s conditions, arguing that “allowing such a frivolous outing is contrary to the spirit of the court’s order setting conditions of release — even if technically within the letter of the prior orders.”
“The fact he is allowed to attend a baseball game is completely unacceptable,” DA’s Office spokesman Michael Patrick said in a statement.
Rose Osborne, Hansen’s public defender, said she is still formulating a response to the state’s motion. She said it’s unusual for prosecutors to make such a request when there hasn’t been a violation.
A spokesman for the 2nd Judicial District Court said he could not comment other than to say that the motion would be “reviewed by a judge in due course.”
Jennifer Marcell said she went into “quick-thinking mode” and from afar took photos and a video of Hansen that she later shared with the DA’s Office. She said she was under the impression that he would be on house arrest with only limited exceptions.
“Not to have a night on the town,” she said.