Homicide case motion partially granted
In a motion hearing on Monday (Feb. 6), the treatment of evidence was deliberated in the case of 47-year-old homicide suspect Julian Sandoval.
Sandoval is charged with the murder of his wife, Ramona Marie Sandoval, who was shot in the chest with a hunting rifle on Jan. 7 of last year. He was arrested and charged with second-degree homicide and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Emilio Chavez determined Sandoval was not a threat to society and released him on house arrest with ankle GPS monitoring on Jan. 22.
The state of New Mexico, represented by 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Cosme Ripol, put forward a motion during the Feb. 6 hearing to sanitize a bloody cell phone that was found at the scene of the alleged murder and which Sandoval allegedly used to request emergency services. According to the motion, the device was covered in blood when it was found laying inches away from the victim’s outstretched hand, and must be cleansed of biohazard material before Regional Computer Forensics
Laboratory can extract evidence from it.
Defense attorney Aleksandar Kostich accused the state of “skipping steps” in its motion to sanitize before collecting DNA evidence from the device. Judge Chavez granted the motion, but ordered samples for DNA testing to be collected before the sanitization.
According to her response to the state’s motion, the defendant “vigorously opposes” the state’s motion to sanitize the device, contrary to assertions made by the state in the original motion.
According to Kostich’s response, Sandoval was at the scene of the crime, kneeling next to the victim and attempting to assist her. The phone allegedly belonged to the victim, and the defense claimed that the state’s motion was part of an attempt on the state’s part to tamper with crime scene evidence.
Kostich is trying to prove that the homicide was a result of selfdefense. While Ramona was shot with a rifle, a metal baseball bat lay at her feet, according Ripol.