Trial Day 5: Hotel Encanto guests heard arguing, gunshots

LAS CRUCES - Guests staying on the seventh floor of Hotel Encanto that night of a fatal shooting there in October 2014 testified Friday in an ongoing murder trial, saying they heard arguing, gunshots and someone knocking on doors.

Jurors during the fifth day of the high-profile trial, in which former Santa Fe deputy Tai Chan is accused of killing a colleague from the department, also heard expert witnesses discuss an autopsy of Jeremy Martin's body and the introduction of a .357 caliber pistol authorities say was used in the shooting.

Witness Edward Haselwood of Manhattan, Kansas, was visiting Las Cruces to carry out training related to underground storage tanks. He stayed at Hotel Encanto the night of the shooting, falling asleep between 10 or 11 p.m. He woke up to loud shouting between two men somewhere near his room.

"They sounded like they were pretty mad at each other," he said from the witness stand. "It did sound like they were face to face."

Haselwood said he couldn't tell what the argument was about. He noticed an abrupt shift in the tone of one of the men's voices and remarks that conveyed an attitude of "disbelief."

"I knew a gun was present, and then I heard a shot," he said.

Audra Davie, an attorney who was staying at Hotel Encanto that night for a business trip, said she also woke up to a loud noise. She said she wondered at the time whether it was furniture being knocked over or a gunshot.

"I got up out of bed, and as I was in the process, I heard someone running down the hallway, banging on the doors, saying it was the sheriff's department or police department."

Davie said the situation scared her and she didn't believe whoever was on banging on the doors was actually law enforcement. The voice wasn't difficult to understand, she said, but "my impression was that person was probably intoxicated." She texted a co-worker who was staying in a nearby room, cautioning her not to answer the door.

After hearing the first gunshot, Haselwood said he next heard a scuffle and about three or four more shots. Then he heard someone moving through the hotel hallway in the direction of the floor's elevator. After that, he heard a second, longer volley of shots, he told jurors. He said he heard a second, clear voice say "call 911."

"They said it in a way specifically that made me think they were saying it to someone else," he said.

Haselwood walked to his hotel door and heard "moaning," he said.

Brody Blaine, a pecan farmer from California who was in Las Cruces on business, told the courtroom that he awoke to the sound of three or four gunshots outside his hotel room.

"I dove onto the ground and covered myself with a chair that was there," he said.

Blaine recalled hearing another series of gunshots. He said there were between "three and 20," though he didn't know exactly how many. After that, he heard someone say to call the police. Like Davie, Blaine heard someone moving from door to door through the hallway, saying "sheriff's department." That was confusing, he said, because he'd just heard a person shout out to call the police. And then someone was moving down the hall, claiming to be from the sheriff's department. He said he couldn't say for certain that voices he heard making the statements were from the same person.

The witnesses said they didn't open their room doors until Las Cruces police arrived.

Martin, 29, was shot five times on the seventh floor of Hotel Encanto sometime after midnight on Oct. 28, 2014. Chan, then 27, is suspected of firing the shots with intent to kill Martin, who was later pronounced dead at MountainView Regional Medical Center. Chan's attorneys have contended evidence will show their client acted in self-defense.

Autopsy results

Nika Aljinovic, a doctor who performed the autopsy on Martin's body for the state medical examiner's office, said the corpse had five bullet entry wounds, all of which traveled back to front. Several organs were hit by the bullets. Two rounds completely exited his body. Photos were shown to jurors of each wound.

Before that, 3rd District Court Judge Fernando Macias had cautioned trial attendees to consider leaving the courtroom if they thought they would react outwardly to graphic images that would be shown.

Aljinovic, who now works in the New York City medical examiner's office, said the manner of death was a homicide, and the cause of death was gunshot wounds. Martin also had a blister on one of his index fingers, abrasions on his right front side and an abrasion to the left knee. There were also bruises on the knuckles of one hand. Aljinovic couldn't say how old those wounds were at the time of the autopsy.

In response to a question from Chan's attorney Thomas Clark Aljinovic acknowledged that the classification of "homicide" specifies only that one person killed another. It doesn't say whether a killing was intentional or accidental.

Clark asked about a "black powdery substance" that was found on Martin's left palm. Aljinovic said there was a substance, but she didn't test it. She said she also didn't field a request from police to have the substance tested.

A toxicology report showed Martin had a blood alcohol content of .102 grams per 100 milliliters, according to Aljinovic. For comparison, the legal limit to drive is .08.

Firearms expert

Forensics firearms expert Steve Guerra, who works for the state's crime lab, showed jurors a Glock .357 pistol and explained how different components function. There are three types of "safeties" on the weapon, which keep it from being unintentionally fired, he said.

Guerra said as part of the case he examined a magazine — a device that contains multiple rounds in preparation for firing. It can hold up to 15 cartridges, and there were four inside when he received it, he said.

In addition, Guerra said he compared 10 casings — spent ammunition — to reference casings he fired himself. He said they all were shot from the .357 pistol that's evidence in the case. That was apparent, he said, because a firing pin on the gun was damaged slightly at some point in the past, causing it to make a distinctive mark on the cartridges as it struck them.

As for the bullets — the projectile portion of a cartridge — Guerra said he wasn't able to definitely say they were from the specific handgun shown to the jury. That's because Glock handguns don't create the same type of patterns on fired bullets as other types guns, he said. It's possible to tell they're from the Glock manufacturer, but not that they're from a given firearm.

Footage shown

Audio and video of police reading Tai Chan his Miranda rights, which included Chan's response to news that his co-worker was dead, was among evidence presented to jurors.

Las Cruces Police Department video footage from within hours after the shooting showed Chan dressed in a white jumpsuit, seated at a table in a bare room. The officers left for a few minutes and returned, one of them relaying Chan the news about Martin's fate.

"I don't know if we've already told you, but Jeremy's dead," the LCPD officer told Chan.

In the footage, Chan sipped some water from a bottle officers had given him, but didn't say anything or show outward reaction to the news.

After agreeing that he understood his Miranda rights, Chan declined to be interviewed by LCPD detective Rene Molenda about the incident, according to audio, which sounded slightly muffled in the courtroom.

Rene Molenda said that Chan "appeared disassociated" when he spoke with him but not impaired.

Clark asked Molinda if any other officers had told him that Chan had claimed earlier the shooting was an act of self-defense.

"I don't recall hearing that information," Molenda said.

In October 2014, Chan and Martin had stopped in Las Cruces to stay overnight after transporting an inmate to Safford, Arizona.

The trial resumes Tuesday morning.

Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 575-541-5443, dalba@lcsun-news.com or @AlbaSoular on Twitter.