SWAT Officer: Chan wasn’t on this earth night of deadly shooting

A jury Friday heard from the first officer to make contact with Tai Chan, the former Santa Fe County sheiff’s deputy accused of killing his partner.

Chan and deputy Jeremy Martin where spending the night at the Hotel Encanto in Las Cruces after dropping off a prisoner in Arizona.

Witnesses have testified the men had been drinking the night of the deadly shooting. The defense claims Martin attacked Chan inside a hotel room and Chan shot and killed Martin in self-defense.

Officer Jonathan Boehne, a member of the Las Cruces Police Department Swat Team back in 2014, testified that when he arrived at the scene of the murder, he and a team of officers were instructed to search and clear the stairwell inside Hotel Cncanto.

Boehne said that while searching, he heard someone yelling “sheriffs department” repeatedly.

As they got closer, Boehne said he learned it was Chan yelling and ordered him to come down the stairs.

Boehne testified he questioned Chan to learn more about the shooting. He said Chan was not looking at him when they spoke and that Chan kept looking at the door to the stairwell.

“(Chan) wasn’t engaged. He wouldnt answer the questions in an engaged manner,” Boehne said, “He was either looking through me or over my shoulder the entire time and didn’t seem to be engaged with me as a person.”

Boehne described Chan as “not being on planet earth” the night of the shooting.

Chan allegedly told Boehne he was in room 711. “Don’t go up there, it is dangerous,” Chan said, according to Boehne.

Martin’s mother cried in court when she saw pictures of the hotel room where the men were staying and the trail of blood left by her son.

The photos were shown to the jury as LCPD Evidence Technician Shari Vialpando-Hill testified.

She took most of the pictures and detailed what she captured that night.

Vialpando-Hill said a total of 10 bullet casings were found at the scene. Five shells were found inside the hotel room and another five were found in the hallway outside the room.

The technician also showed two bullets lodged in the walls of the room next door to where the shooting occurred.

When the jury was shown photos of a pool of blood, Martin’s mother broke down in tears.