Though Carlos Fierro's blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal driving limit when he struck and killed a pedestrian last November, the crash was not his fault, a defense witness testified Friday.

"The pedestrian caused this crash," said Jeff Vick, a former New Mexico State Police officer who now makes a living as an accident reconstructionist. "The fact of (Fierro) being .21 is not the cause."

Vick, a Dallas resident who was paid about $11,000 to analyze the Nov. 26 crash outside a downtown bar on Guadalupe Street, said he came to that conclusion based on a number of factors. Those factors include statements by several witnesses who said Tenorio was jaywalking and possibly walking backward just before the crash, was wearing dark clothing and looked like he might have been alternately waving at people standing in front of WilLee's Blues Club or looking at something in his hand that might have been a cell phone, Vick said.

Vick also pointed out that most witnesses reported hearing a loud noise or "pop" from the direction of a median in front of the Cowgirl BBQ restaurant that Fierro struck before hitting Tenorio, and that most said they could hear the car coming. However, Tenorio clearly didn't hear the car, he said.

"He was distracted," Vick said.

Finally, there was the issue of lighting and whether it was adequate in that part of Guadalupe Street.

Peter Manzanares, a construction project manager for the city of Santa Fe, testified that he noticed on Dec. 19 that five streetlights on Guadalupe that had been installed only months before were not working. The lights, which were working when the project was completed in July, were between Read and Aztec streets.

The lights were fixed by January after Manzanares called the contractor, he said.

Vick told jurors he counted five lights out in photos taken by police after the crash. Four of those lights were on the east side of Guadalupe and one was on the west side. Of those four lights, two were north of Montezuma and three were south. Jason Bowles, one of Fierro's attorneys, said later that Manzanares and Vick identified the same five lights.

The darkened streetlights likely meant the area was not as bright as it might have been, which made Tenorio "difficult to detect if not invisible," Vick said.

Those factors, coupled with mathematical formulas related to how fast the car was going and how quickly a sober driver might react considering the factors, meant that a sober driver most likely wouldn't have been able to avoid a pedestrian given the circumstances of the Fierro crash, Vick said.

"You're past before you can ever do anything," he said.

Vick calculated that Fierro's speed at the time of the crash was between 23 mph and 29 mph. The speed limit on that portion of Guadalupe is 20 mph. He also said he calculated that Tenorio was a step or a step and a half into the southbound lane when he was struck.

Under questioning from prosecutor Juan Valencia, Vick later admitted that a pedestrian might have had a hard time seeing a black car — the color of Fierro's 2004 BMW 530i — coming at him with no headlights. Most witnesses have said the BMW didn't have its headlights on, and two videos shown during the trial appeared to back that up.

Defense lawyers on Friday planned to put Fierro on the witness stand, but there wasn't enough time at the end of the day. He will testify at 9 a.m. Monday. The trial was scheduled to run through Thursday, though jurors are likely to begin deliberations Monday depending on how long closing arguments take.

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