Tai Chan murder case goes to jury

The murder trial of Tai Chan, who is accused of shooting and killing fellow Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputy Jeremy Martin at a Las Cruces hotel in 2014, is now with a Las Cruces jury after defense attorneys and prosecutors gave their closing statements Monday morning.

The jury deliberated for around eight hours Monday afternoon into the evening before being sent home for the night. It will reconvene to deliberate at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The state began the third week of the trial with its closing statements, arguing that Chan should be convicted of first-degree murder in Martin’s death.

It argued, as has been contested between prosecutors and the defense throughout the trial, that Martin was never armed throughout a drunken fight at the hotel room.

Chan testified Friday that sometime during the fight, Martin pointed his gun at Chan, which led to a scuffle and Chan eventually shooting Martin five times in the back as he fled out of the hotel room and down a hallway.

“If there was ever a clear case of first-degree murder, this is it,” prosecutors said. “This defendant had to make a conscious choice to pull that trigger each and every time he fired it.”

Chan’s defense has maintained he killed Martin in self-defense that night after a night of drinking at a Las Cruces pub.

His attorney, John Day, started the defense’s closing statements by saying the state did not meet the burden of proof that Chan did not act in self-defense the night he shot Martin.

“The burden is always on the state government of New Mexico to come in here and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Tai Chan did not act in self-defense. They haven’t done it,” Day said.

Day argued that the state’s case for first-degree murder was full of holes — pointing out that detectives failed to test a black powdery substance on Martin’s hand that supposedly contained gunpowder residue.

“First-degree murder? No, it’s not first-degree murder. Second-degree murder? No. Voluntary manslaughter? No. He acted in self-defense, as he told you. He acted in self-defense,” Day said.

Day hammered home the self-defense claim.

“If Tai Chan had not acted to defend himself, we would have buried Tai Chan, and [defense attorney] Mr. Clark and I would have been defending Jeremy Martin,” Day said.

The case was sent to the jury around 12:30 p.m. Monday.

The two deputies stopped in Las Cruces that afternoon after dropping a prisoner off in Arizona, and were on their way back to Santa Fe.