For the first couple of hours after he struck and killed a pedestrian downtown last November, Carlos Fierro thought he was being arrested only for drunken driving.

During his trial Monday on charges of vehicular homicide and causing a fatal accident, he testified that he was angry and disappointed in himself and "felt like a failure."

"In my mind, I just said to myself, 'You're gonna get it (a DWI), take it," the 36-year-old attorney told jurors. "I said, 'I'll take a blood test if you want. I'm gonna accept this.' "

It wasn't until he was leaving Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center with a Santa Fe police officer that he said he began to realize his situation was far more serious than a simple DWI.

"Officer (Fred) Bornman said, 'What happened to your car, bro?' " Fierro said.

He said he thought the officer was trying to rub in the fact that Fierro's 2004 BMW 530i had sustained serious damage in the crash, and he didn't answer. But Bornman, who'd earlier administered sobriety tests to Fierro, asked the question again, Fierro said.

"I said, 'I don't know. It's screwed up,' " Fierro testified. "He said, 'You hit somebody, and he's probably gonna die.' "

Fierro said he was shocked.

"I said, 'What? I didn't hit anybody. Are you kidding me right now? That's impossible,' " he said.

Later, after he was booked into the Santa Fe County jail, Fierro found out that William Tenorio, 46, had died from the injuries he sustained when Fierro struck him. Fierro's lawyer, Jason Bowles, asked him what went through his head at that time.

"I was sad," Fierro said.

Both sides in the case presented closing arguments Monday afternoon after Fierro testified during the morning. Jurors received the case about 4:45 p.m., deliberated for an hour and are scheduled to return this morning.

Fierro admitted he and former state police Sgt. Alfred Lovato — his passenger at the time of the crash Nov. 26 on Guadalupe Street — had been drinking beer and whiskey at the Rio Chama Steakhouse on Old Santa Fe Trail for hours before the crash. After leaving the Rio Chama, the two men headed to Allsup's on North Guadalupe for burritos before driving to the former WilLee's Blues Club, another downtown bar, Fierro said.

While at WilLee's, Fierro ended up at the bar's smoking patio, he said. Tenorio and a group of his friends soon also came out to the patio, and Fierro and Tenorio began talking.

"We just kind of clicked," Fierro said. "We had the same sense of humor. We were laughing about the same things."

Fierro said the two men talked for 30 to 40 minutes about tribal politics and tribal government. Afterward, Fierro — whose blood alcohol content was later found to be .21 after the crash — said he could feel the effects of the alcohol he'd had and thought he should go and call his mother's boyfriend for a ride for Lovato and himself.

Fierro said he found Lovato standing at the bar and approached him. But before could say anything to Lovato, a woman tapped him on the shoulder and said something he didn't initially hear. Fierro testified that the woman then pointed to the dance floor and said, "You better watch your boy. They know he's a stater."

"Stater" is a colloquial term for state police officer.

Fierro said the statement spooked him and that he didn't want to wait around to see what might happen. "I made the call," Fierro said. "I said, 'Let's go.' "

The two men walked to Fierro's BMW, which was parked on Garfield Street, then drove to Allsup's again, he said. However, the store was out of burritos, and the two men didn't buy anything. Fierro, however, said he thought he'd left his debit card at WilLee's, so they headed back in that direction.

Fierro said his headlights were on at the time — several witnesses testified that the car's lights were not on — because he knew he was intoxicated and wanted to do everything he could to avoid attracting police attention. Fierro said he planned to park on Garfield Street again, leave Lovato in the car and go and retrieve his bank card.

Fierro said he remembered driving south and hitting a median in the middle of the road near the Cowgirl BBQ, but didn't veer into the northbound lane, as two witnesses testified they had seen. He said he didn't know his tire was flat.

As he approached WilLee's, Fierro said, the stoplight at Montezuma Avenue and Guadalupe Street was green — at least one witness earlier testified it was red. He said he saw people standing on both sides of the street screaming. He said he noticed two girls in front of WilLee's, then heard his windshield shatter.

He said he thought people near the bar had thrown a rock or a brick at his car. He said he was very concerned about Lovato, whom he had earlier called his best friend.

"I said, 'Alfred what did they throw?' " Fierro said. "I was hitting him and hitting him, and he wouldn't say anything. It was scary. I just wanted to get the heck away from there as quick as possible. I just hit the accelerator."

Fierro said he had no idea he'd hit a person.

"I never saw Mr. Tenorio," Fierro said. "I never saw him in the street. I never saw him at all."

Later, in his testimony, Fierro addressed members of the Tenorio family who have attended the trial every day since it began Sept. 21.

"I want them to know I'm sorry for all this and I know they suffer," he said. "The worst part's been you can't say anything to the Tenorio family."

Fierro's other lawyer, Robert Gorence, also addressed the Tenorio family at the beginning of his closing argument Monday afternoon. He complimented them on their "poise, grace and purpose" throughout the trial and said, "I'm sure William embodied all of that."

Gorence then said he thought the roles of the Fierro and Tenorio families could "so easily have been switched." Gorence implied that Tenorio could have hit Fierro while Fierro was walking back to the bar to retrieve his bank card. The two women who were the last to talk to Tenorio — whose blood alcohol content was later determined to be .14 — testified that just before he stepped off the curb, he told them he was going to be the designated driver for his friends.

Gorence also criticized the police investigation into the crash. He said the Santa Fe Police Department initially assigned its most experienced accident reconstructionist to the case, then reassigned a less-experienced investigator about a week later because the first investigator's conclusions didn't fit the prosecution's notions about the case. Gorence described the accident report done by the other investigator as "garbage."

However, Police Chief Aric Wheeler said Monday that the more experienced investigator never worked on the case.

Gorence also criticized police for not asking a BMW technician to determine for certain if the car's headlights were on at the time of the crash.

Finally, Gorence pointed to a surveillance video taken from a camera at an art gallery at the corner of Read and Guadalupe streets, which prosecutors said showed the BMW pass by without headlights, followed by a witness who testified that he ran after the car. The car in the video does not turn left on Read Street, as most witnesses said Fierro did, Gorence said.

Prosecutors couldn't explain the discrepancy.

District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco also brought up the Tenorio family in her closing argument.

"One of the disturbing aspects of this case has been the constant blame of the victim," she said. "The Tenorio family had to sit here and listen to their son be blamed for his own death. I cannot think of anything more insulting."

For Pacheco, the case came down to Fierro's responsibilities, not Tenorio's.

"If you make a decision to get behind the wheel of a 3,000-pound vehicle drunk, you are responsible for all that happens after," she said. "Ladies and gentlemen, the penalty for jaywalking is not death."

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.