When Carlos Fierro takes the stand later in his trial, he will admit he had been drinking alcohol before driving his car late last fall and striking a pedestrian, Fierro's lawyer said Monday.
"He will be convicted of that (drinking and driving)," Jason Bowles said during opening arguments in Fierro's trial. "He will not walk out of this courtroom a free man."
However, the crash that killed William Tenorio, 46, in the early morning hours of the day before Thanksgiving was "unavoidable," Bowles said. That's because Tenorio — a San Felipe Pueblo resident and father of three — was jaywalking and paying attention to his cell phone, wearing dark clothing and had been drinking alcohol for hours before.
Also, Bowles said, several streetlights — not stoplights — were out on "one of the darkest nights of the year," with no moonlight.
Finally, Fierro was distracted by a woman he thought was yelling at him from in front of the now-defunct WilLee's Blues Club, Bowles said, and never even knew he had hit a person until he was being escorted out of Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center by police officers hours later.
Fierro, instead, thought he was being attacked at the time and that someone might have thrown something like a brick at his car, Bowles said, adding that was why Fierro had panicked and fled.
"All of these factors combined at that moment to make this accident inevitable," Bowles said. "Mr. Fierro will not be the cause of this accident. His drinking was not the cause of this accident."
Prosecutor Juan Valencia disagreed.
"If he'd been sober, this tragedy would never have occurred," Valencia told jurors during his opening statement Monday morning. "Even if he was just not speeding, this accident wouldn't have occurred."
Valencia told the jury of eight men and eight women that Fierro and his passenger at the time of the accident — former state police Sgt. Alfred Lovato — had been drinking "very seriously" at the Rio Chama Steakhouse and WilLee's before the crash, including cocktails, beer and whiskey shots. In addition, Fierro was driving above the 20 mph speed limit on Guadalupe Street when he hit Tenorio, Valencia said.
"Because he drove drunk, somebody is dead," Valencia said. "And because he fled the scene, it makes it worse."
Fierro's blood alcohol content was .21 after the crash. Tenorio's blood alcohol content was later determined to have been .14. A level of .08 is the legal level for driving in New Mexico.
Jurors heard testimony Monday from five witnesses, four of whom testified at Fierro's preliminary hearing in February, when state District Judge Michael Vigil ruled that probable cause existed to charge him with vehicular homicide and causing a fatal accident.
The witness who wasn't called to testify at the preliminary hearing is Oceanna Holton, an art teacher at the Santa Fe Girls School. Holton testified that she arrived at WilLee's about 11:30 that night after spending two hours at the Cowgirl BBQ and Western Grill down the street. Holton said she had a gin and tonic and a shot of tequila at the Cowgirl, but nothing to drink at WilLee's.
As Holton walked into WilLee's, Tenorio walked by her and said hello, she said, adding that she didn't know him previously.
"He was very, very friendly, very kind," she said. "He said, 'Happy Thanksgiving. Great to see you.' "
She said she talked to him for three or four minutes and didn't think he was intoxicated. After speaking to Tenorio, Holton walked past Lovato, who touched her arm and asked her to stop. Lovato told her he had a friend he wanted her to meet and introduced her to Fierro, she said.
Fierro "didn't say more than two words to me," Holton said. Fierro merely stood there with his eyes "half-shut," she said.
As Holton and her female friend were leaving the bar, they ran into Tenorio again. Her friend knew Tenorio, and they stopped to talk to him outside WilLee's after the bar closed, she said. The three of them spoke for five to eight minutes, and Tenorio and Holton's friend exchanged phone numbers, Holton said. Then Tenorio received a text message and told them he was the designated driver for his friends and family, who were waiting at his car, and he had to go, she said.
Tenorio stepped off the curb, walked diagonally into the crosswalk at Guadalupe Street and Montezuma Avenue, then began walking across the street in the crosswalk, Holton said. At that point, she heard "a really loud noise" coming from the area of the Zia Diner, but didn't immediately know what it was, she said. Then she saw a black car without headlights accelerating south on Guadalupe Street and heard the transmission shifting gears.
"The car was going really fast" as it sped through the stoplight at Guadalupe and Montezuma, Holton said, estimating the speed at between 30 mph and 40 mph. Tenorio was almost across the street, when she said she saw the car hit Tenorio, who flew about 20 feet into the air and landed on the road. The car sped off, Holton said.
She said she was sure Tenorio was in the crosswalk when he was hit.
Under questioning from Bowles, Holton also said she was certain Tenorio was walking forward across the street. However, Bowles showed her the statement she wrote for police the night of the crash in which she said Tenorio was walking backward at the time he was struck.
Holton appeared surprised that she'd written that and said she has played the incident over and over again in her head since it happened. She even said she had to see a therapist because she kept seeing the sequence of events involuntarily.
"The visual I have in my memory was not him walking backward," she said. Holton later testified that she remembered Tenorio turning around briefly at one point, waving at her and her friend and saying "Good night."
Two other witnesses to the crash said the impact occurred south of the crosswalk.
Sol Bentley, who worked as a reggae DJ at WilLee's the night of the crash, said he was outside the bar and heard a loud pop from the direction of the Cowgirl. He turned to see a car approaching with sparks coming from a tire that had blown out, he said.
Fierro's car accelerated as the light at Guadalupe and Montezuma changed from yellow to red, Bentley said, later acknowledging he couldn't see the light from Fierro's point of view. Bentley was standing in front of WilLee's door — south of the intersection and crosswalk — and said the car struck Tenorio, whom he saw walking backward at the time, directly in front of him.
"He was not in the crosswalk," Bentley said. "No doubt about it."
The headlights on Fierro's car were not on, Bentley said.
Bentley ran toward the car screaming — he remembered possibly using profanity — for the driver to stop because he'd hit a person. But the car drove off when he got within 10 feet of it, took a left at Read Street, where it jumped a median and possibly popped another tire, and sped off. Bentley gave chase for a block or two before calling 911 and returning to the scene.
Prosecutors played a security videotape taken from a camera at a gallery near the corner of Read and Guadalupe streets. The tape showed a few cars coming down the street with headlights on before the dark-colored BMW drives by without headlights, followed a few seconds later by Bentley, who runs after it on foot.
David Segarra, another witness, said he'd just spoken briefly with Tenorio before leaving WilLee's and heading north on Guadalupe toward the Cowgirl. He said he was between WilLee's and the Cowgirl when he saw Fierro's BMW — going about 5 mph — hit a median in front of the Cowgirl, then speed up to between 10 and 15 mph when it went through the stoplight and struck Tenorio.
Segarra said he watched the car drive down the street and saw Tenorio about three seconds before the impact. Tenorio's body "somersaulted into the air," he said.
Segarra said he didn't know if the car's headlights were on, but thought he remembered the lights being on after the crash. Segarra then ran to Tenorio and tried to comfort him.
The trial is scheduled to continue until Oct. 1.
Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.Comment forum
