LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Hotel guests staying at the same Las Cruces hotel where authorities say a Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a fellow officer took the stand Tuesday as prosecutors called on them to recount the night of the shooting more than a year ago.
Randy Hudson, who lives in Georgia, told jurors he was in town for a conference and staying at Hotel Encanto in October 2014 when he heard the sound of a “rapid burst of gunfire” coming from the floor above him. Then there was a pause before three more distinct shots rang out, he said.
“It was very audible, and it was - you know - it seared in my mind,” he said.
Mary Anne Hale, of California, said she heard someone shout an expletive and tell another person to leave a room before gunshots erupted.
The testimony Tuesday came on the second day of a murder trial for Tai Chan, a 29-year-old former deputy who has been charged in the death of Deputy Jeremy Martin. Prosecutors have indicated more than 80 witnesses could be called to the stand in a trial that may last weeks.
According to authorities, Chan and Martin were staying the night in Las Cruces on their way back from Arizona, where they had dropped off inmates, when Chan shot his co-worker.
Chan’s attorney argued in opening statements that his client shot in self-defense. Prosecutors are arguing that Chan shot 10 rounds at Martin, who tried to escape down a hallway, then an elevator. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Now 29, Chan has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder - a charge his lawyer moved to have dismissed last week just before the start of the trial.
Scores of interviews and a review of documents and evidence by the defense did not turn up any indication that the shooting was deliberate or premeditated, said John Day, Chan’s attorney. But a judge denied Day’s motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge, giving way to the trial.
The first witness to take the stand Tuesday was Sarah Martin, the widow of Deputy Martin. Sarah Martin’s testimony lasted several minutes before prosecutors finished questioning, and defense attorneys declined to question her.
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