Tai Chan Trial: Hotel guests testify about what they heard night of killing

Jurors in the Tai Chan murder trial heard from guests staying at the Hotel Encanto the night Chan allegedly shot and killed his colleague.

Chan, a former Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Deputy, is accused of killing Jeremy Martin. The two deputies were spending the night in Las Cruces on their way back home. They had just dropped off a prisoner in Arizona.

Audra Davie, an insurance defense attorney, was staying at the Hotel Encanto the night of the murder. She told jurors she woke up after hearing gunshots and yelling.

She called hotel staff when she heard someone running down the hallway, banging on doors, saying “they were with the sheriff department.”

Davie said someone knocked on her door and yelled “open up.” She thought the person was drunk because the words were loud and slurred. Davie said she didn’t think it was and officer conducting business.

The prosecution called another guest saying at the hotel that night. The man said he says he woke up to gunshots and dove onto ground, where he remained until the dust settled.

The man said he heard light knocking on his door, then heard a person going door to door knocking and yelling “sheriff’s department.”

Another witness, Edward Haselwood, testified he heard gun shots and commotion. He said he heard a volley of shots, and someone running down the hallway by his room on the 7th floor.

The elevator was by his room and Haselwood said he heard a call for 9-1-1, moaning, and someone say “how could this happen to me?”

Steve Guerra, a firearms expert with the Department of Public Safety’s crime lab, explained the exams he conducts on firearms and showed the jury a semi-automatic gun.

Jurors also heard from a police detective who interviewed. He testified the former deputy refused to answer questions and requested an attorney. The jury heard audio and saw the video of the interview.

Chan showed no emotion as the jury heard from firearms expert, Steve Guerra, with the Department of Public Safety’s crime lab in Santa Fe.

Guerra testified the nature of the clothes sent to the lab that suggests Martin was shot several times.

“The shirt had I examined had 8 holes, that may or may not have been created by the passage of a bullet. Bullets tend to fragment sometimes,” Guerra said, “In the shorts I found one hole that appeared to have been created by the passage of a bullet and in the sweat-pants I found four holes but really only one appeared to be created by the passage of a bullet.”