Jury selection for Tai Chan trial starts Monday
The jury was deadlocked. Now, one year later, the former Santa Fe deputy accused of shooting and killing his partner starts again Monday.
Former Santa Fe Deputy Tai Chan is accused of shooting and killing his partner Jeremy Martin in 2014. 99 potential jurors will be at Dona Ana County District court. Only 12, along with several alternates will serve on the jury.
Last June, ABC-7 was inside the courtroom. Jurors heard the tense moments officers responded to a shooting at the Hotel Encanto. Officers say they found Tai Chan hiding in a stairwell.
“It went from 0-100 right away, it was fast very fast,” Chan said while testifying on the witness stand.
Chan’s accused of murdering his partner Jeremy Martin after a drunken argument in 2014. During the trial jurors heard from hotel guests.
“I could hear moaning and sobbing and (someone say) I can’t believe this has happened, oh God how did this happen to me?” one witness said.
Several officers who responded to the scene said Chan admitted to killing Martin.
“He did make a statement that, ‘I had to do what I had to do’,” an officer said.
Chan said Martin threatened to shoot him, while holding a gun. He also says Martin began hitting him in the face with the gun. The prosecution showed a picture of Chan’s bloodied face and blood stains on a sheet and pillow.
But jurors also heard Chan’s erratic behavior that night captured on an officer’s lapel pin.
“Get every body out!” Chan yelled in the audio recording. “Everybody out! Everybody out of that building! There’s a bomb on the third floor, check it out. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bomb, it doesn’t matter if it’s real or fake or not . I’m a cop!”
In the end, only one juror believed it was first degree murder. The others were split between second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. The judge declared a mistrial. The district attorney’s office said it stood by its case. Chan’s defense attorney stood by his client, saying what happened that night was self defense.
