High court pauses trial of former firefighters charged in alleged rape
Jun. 25—A judge on Wednesday paused the trial of two former firefighters accused of raping a woman in 2023 after the New Mexico Supreme Court agreed to consider issues raised by defense attorneys.
Justices ordered a stay late Tuesday in response to an emergency petition filed last week by three men charged in the case, alleging mishandling of the grand jury process.
The Supreme Court ordered the 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office to file a response to the emergency petition no later than noon Thursday.
"We are responding in accordance with the court's request," a spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office said in a statement Wednesday. The DA's office offered no additional comment.
The Supreme Court also ordered that the lower court judge not consider a motion for a mistrial based on the stay.
Testimony began Tuesday in the trials of Aden Heyman, 48, and Anthony Martin, 46, who are each charged with three counts of criminal sexual penetration for allegedly raping a woman at an Albuquerque apartment complex. The 2nd Judicial District Court trial was scheduled to continue through Friday.
The third former firefighter, Angel Portillo, 33, also is charged with three counts of criminal sexual penetration for his role in the incident. No trial has been scheduled in Portillo's case.
Attorneys for Heyman, Martin and Portillo filed an emergency petition June 18 alleging that prosecutors improperly handled the grand jury process that led to the criminal charges.
In particular, the petition argued that the grand jury was not instructed "to consider the guilt of each person individually" for each of the three men accused in the case.
Judge Britt Baca on June 16 rejected a motion from defense attorneys to toss the September 2023 grand jury indictment based on similar issues raised in the emergency petition.
The petition also alleged that the only witness who testified before the grand jury was the lead detective in the case, who was allowed to testify about the alleged victim "blacking out without any foundation provided for her opinions."
The three former firefighters are charged with raping a woman who was invited to a pool party following a charity golf tournament.
A prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday that the three men plied the woman with alcohol until she "blacked out completely at the pool" immediately prior to the alleged attack.
The woman woke up pinned to a bed in a dark room and realized she was being raped, Assistant District Attorney Crystal Cabrido told jurors.
Attorneys for Heyman and Martin said in opening statements Tuesday that the sexual encounter was consensual and questioned whether the woman ever lost consciousness.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mariska Hargitay on the Stunning Moment She Learned About Biological Dad: 'Jolt Went Through My Body'
Mariska Hargitay was 25 years old when she learned the stunning truth about her biological father from a man she had never met. The "Law & Order: SVU" star spoke with Alex Cooper on the June 25 episode of Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" podcast about how she found out her biological father is Italian singer Nelson Sardelli, not Hungarian bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay. Hargitay had journeyed to the home of Sabin Gray, a diehard fan of her late mother, actor and 1950s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, to see his collection of Mansfield memorabilia. Hargitay, whose HBO documentary, "My Mom Jayne," comes out on June 27, ended the visit with a shocking realization. "It was a little overwhelming for me because there were life-size cutouts, and it was truly like a museum or a shrine to her," Hargitay said. "That was hard for me at that age to sort of understand. ... I'm seeing all this stuff that I had never seen and kind of grew up away from all of that." "He's showing me all these photos. He's showing me whatever it is, dresses that she had that he'd collected, earrings that she wore, things from movies from the movie set, props or whatever, and then he says to me, 'Do you want to see a picture of Nelson?'" she recalled. The question immediately unnerved Hargitay, who was 3 years old when her mother died in a car accident in 1967. "I just looked at him, and this jolt went through my body, and I said, 'Who's Nelson?'" she said. "And then I knew in one second." Hargitay remembered the blood draining out of Gray's face after asking her about Sardelli. "He sort of panicked and turned white, and he said, 'Oh, it's probably not true, it's probably not true,' and that's when I knew," Hargitay said. "And I think that (Gray) couldn't believe that I didn't know. I was 25, how could I not know?" Hargitay was then shown a picture of Sardelli. "On a cellular level, it was just like DNA talking to DNA," she said. "I knew it was true, and I just really thought my life was over." Hargitay was distraught as she departed Gray's home. "I remember leaving and driving to my brother's house, and I thought I was going to crash my car because I was so not present," she said. "I was totally dissociated and out of my body, and I got to my brother's house. I didn't even know how I got there, but I knew that I shouldn't be driving. It was crazy." Hargitay's world was upended. She was very close with Mickey Hargitay, who had raised her after Mansfield was killed in an accident in which Mariska and her two brothers, Zoltan and Mickey Jr., were also in the car. "The one thing I did have, the one thing that I was rooted in, the one thing that was my constant, was no longer mine," she said about realizing Mickey Hargitay was not her biological father. "And my identity was just smashed. It was like it broke in two." She struggled to deal with a "thousand pellets of hard truth." "(I'm) going, 'My brothers aren't my brothers, I'm not Hungarian, I'm not related to all my family that I grew up with in Hungary,'" she said. It started to make sense to her why during her childhood "everyone asked me if I was Italian." Once she drove to the home of one of her brothers, she asked him if he knew about Sardelli being her biological father. "I'm very, very, very, very close with my brother, and he didn't (know), so then that was also confusing," she said. "And then I went up to my dad's house, and I was hysterically crying and in a state." She said Mickey Hargitay was in the process of physically building her a home when she asked him about Sardelli. "So I drive up to the house that he is building me and confront him, and he was like, 'What? What are you talking about? Are you crazy? That's so not true,'" she said. "He kept saying, 'You look like my father, you look exactly like my father, you're a Hargitay to the end,'" she continued. "The irony is that I'm more like my dad than anyone in our whole family. Like, I am mini-Mickey, right? And so it was just a very extraordinarily painful moment. I say that this is the moment that I became an adult, and it's so visceral for me because I was in so much pain, I was so overwhelmed." Despite finding out the stunning truth about her bloodline, she did not press Mickey Hargitay on the issue. "I was so overwhelmed and I was in the 'me, me, me, me, oh, my gosh, my life is over,' and then looking at this man who's been nothing but loving to me and nothing but this amazing father to me, and I saw his pain," she said. "And I said, 'It doesn't matter what I feel. I love him. We're done here.' "And so I said, 'OK, thank you for telling me,' and I pretended that I believed him, and we never spoke of it again," she continued. "And then he used to say, even before he died, 'Remember when you thought that crazy thing?' And I go, 'I know, wasn't that nuts?'" Hargitay told Cooper she'll 'never know' the extent of Mickey's knowledge on the matter. 'I think that he integrated it in, 'This is my new reality,'' she said. 'He made a choice and that was his new truth. And whether it's true or not emotionally, it was his truth.' While she was managing her emotions with Mickey, Hargitay also was reeling at the thought that Sardelli had not acknowledged her as his daughter. "That was where the injury was," she said, "is, why wasn't I claimed? He must have known. He didn't care, he didn't love me, I wasn't worth it, I was nothing to him. He knew, he had to know that I was his daughter, and I wasn't worth it. I wasn't valuable enough, and that's what I lived with, is that I wasn't enough." "So having that feeling of, my mother left me and then again my father abandoned me was so hard to integrate or make sense out of," she added. At 61 years old, Hargitay said she now has the benefit of being able to view the situation with more wisdom. "I'm so grateful for this life to grow into the miracle of my story, and having this comprehensive understanding and getting the full perspective and now seeing that I had such a limited, teeny, teeny, teeny sliver of the truth (at the time)," she said. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
82-year-old's body found at Oyster Pile Boat Ramp in Milton, SRSO investigating
An investigation into an 82-year-old man's potential drowning is ongoing after he was found on the Blackwater River June 13. A passerby at the Oyster Pile Boat Ramp discovered a running SUV with a boat backed into the water, but there was no sign of a person, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office. When deputies arrived at the scene, the located the 82-year-old man's body nearby. The SRSO told the News Journal the incident is a suspected drowning, however the investigation remains ongoing. This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Milton Blackwater River drowning investigation underway, SRSO says
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pensacola man sentenced for machine gun, drug trafficking after car chase
A Pensacola man who led Florida Highway Patrol troopers on a high-speed chase down Pensacola Boulevard in 2023 has been sentenced to spend nine years in a federal prison. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced June 24 that 21-year-old Antoine Booker was given the nine-year sentence for possessing a loaded gun and trafficking "large amounts" of marijuana. "The public should rest assured that law enforcement will not stand for armed drug traffickers endangering citizens in our streets," said U.S. Attorney John Heekin. "If you possess a machinegun to protect your drug trafficking operations, you should know that federal prison awaits you." FHP attempted to pull over Booker in December 2023 for driving a rental car with too much tint, but when the trooper attempted the traffic stop, Booker then fled. "Suddenly, the driver rapidly accelerated and swerved left towards the K-9 Trooper's vehicle who just arrived to assist with the traffic stop," the 2023 FHP report says. "The driver then swerved right into a Circle K gas station located at 7950 Pensacola Boulevard." Booker then allegedly led troopers on a brief chase before he flipped his own car. Following his arrest, Booker was charged in state court for fleeing law enforcement, possession of a machine gun and other drug related offenses. However, the Office of the State Attorney dropped those charges in February 2024 after he was federally indicted on the same charges. "Had it not been for law enforcement's training and determination, this armed suspect would have undoubtedly wreaked havoc in Northwest Florida," said ATF Special Agent in Charge Kirk Howard. "We are proud of the partnerships we've built with Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Escambia County Sheriff's Office and our federal prosecutors." This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola man sentenced for machine gun, drug trafficking after chase
