Carlos Fierro, who is serving a prison sentence for a 2008 vehicular homicide, is scheduled to testify Monday in the trial of his passenger that night: Alfred Lovato.

Special DWI prosecutors Donna Bevacqua-Young of the New Mexico Attorney General's Office and Assistant City Attorney Alfred Walker this week began trying to convince a jury that Lovato is guilty as an accomplice to vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.

After a night of drinking with Lovato, Fierro was driving his black BMW when it hit William Tenorio outside the now-defunct WilLee's Blues Club on Guadalupe Street.

Along with Fierro, prosecutors are expected to call John Gonzales, the lead case agent from Santa Fe police, as well as two more witnesses to Tenorio's death.

Much of Thursday was spent rehashing evidence presented in the Fierro case. Witnesses were called to the stand to verify that Fierro was tested after the accident and had a blood-alcohol level of .21 -- more than twice the legal limit.

Lovato's defense attorney, Sam Bregman, turned each witness's trip to the stand into an examination regarding Lovato. None gave concrete evidence as to Lovato's specific role in the accident.

Fred Borman, a special DWI officer with Santa Fe police in 2008, did offer some insight as to how a person can be charged with DWI.

Borman conducted the field sobriety test on Fierro on Nov. 26, 2008, and determined that after several failed tests he had probable cause to charge Fierro with DWI.

"If I pull somebody over and I look in their face, based on my training, I can tell pretty quickly if someone is impaired," Borman responded.

The prosecution hasn't noted that Lovato would have gone through the same basic training as many of the officers testifying in his trial. Lovato spent more than 17 years as a police officer and was part of former Gov. Bill Richardson's state police security detail.

The prosecution also called Lionel Candelaria, a Tenorio cousin who witnessed the accident, and Sgt. Charles Otero of Santa Fe Police Department to the stand. Candelaria, under questioning from Bregman, said Tenorio wasn't in the crosswalk while he crossed the street.

Otero was the lead case agent in the investigation before he was replaced by Gonzales. He was removed as the case agent in 2008 after he produced a crash reconstruction that showed Tenorio was outside of the crosswalk, and indicated that possibly was a contributing factor to the collision.

Bregman asked Otero if he thought he was removed from the case because "he had come to the conclusion [Tenorio] was outside of the crosswalk and Gonzales didn't?"

"That's my opinion," Otero affirmed.

Although Otero didn't create a list of known witnesses from that November 2008 night, he said that from the interviews he conducted, he concluded Tenorio was not in the crosswalk when Fierro barreled through him at about 2 a.m.

Evidence was also presented in court that showed Lovato and Fierro entered the Allsups convenience store at 305 N. Guadalupe St. minutes before the accident. There was no sound with the video, but Lovato can be seen purchasing food and talking to both the cashier and Fierro.

The defense has claimed that Lovato, due to his own intoxication, wasn't "conscious" when Fierro's car hit Tenorio.

Contact Nico Roesler at 986-3089 or nroesler@sfnewmexican.com.