STATE V. MANTELLI 131 N.M. 692, 42 P.3d 272 (NM 2002) CASE BRIEF

STATE V. MANTELLI

131 N.M. 692, 42 P.3d 272 (NM 2002)

NATURE OF THE CASE: Joseph Mantelli (D), a police officer, appeals his conviction for voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (a firearm), and shooting at a motor vehicle resulting in injury. One of the grounds for that appeal was the failure to instruct the jury on justifiable homicide by a police officer.

FACTS: D, a uniformed officer with the Las Vegas, New Mexico Police Department (LVPD), was on duty, wearing his uniform and patrolling in a marked police unit with Sergeant Steve Marquez (Sgt. Marquez). They spotted a white Toyota truck near the Las Vegas City Plaza. They believed this was the same vehicle that earlier that night was going the wrong way on a one-way street, causing Sgt. Marquez to swerve to avoid a collision. The truck, driven by Montoya, had in fact eluded Sgt. Marquez after a brief chase that ended when Sgt. Marquez's marked police unit became disabled. D activated the overhead lights and wig-wag lights on the police unit and moved to get behind the truck. D claimed that Montoya reacted to the lights by increasing his speed, and proceeding through an intersection without stopping for a stop signal. During the course of the pursuit, Montoya ran through six or seven stop signs, eventually reaching a dead-end at Valley and Chavez Streets. Eventually the two vehicles collided in the middle of the intersection of Valley and Chavez. Rubio, a passenger in the truck, testified that D seemed to immediately be at the driver's side window trying to break the window with the butt of his handgun. At the same time Montoya was shifting the manual transmission of the truck out of reverse and turning the wheel to the right in a continuing attempt to turn down Chavez Street. D succeeded in breaking the driver's side window. Montoya put the truck into first gear and began to drive away, going up and over the curb. He had to drive slowly as he turned right down Chavez Street to avoid the rock wall at the intersection. After clearing the wall, Montoya drove the truck fast down Chavez Street. Rubio heard two shots. Rubio felt something graze his head and he ducked. He also told Montoya to stop. Rubio described the shots as coming one right after the other. After the shots rang out, the truck went out of control and hit the side of a house some distance down Chavez Street. Montoya suffered one shot in the back and a second in the head, killing him almost instantly. Rubio testified that he did not think that he and Montoya had ever put any officer's life in danger. D was indicted and tried on charges of voluntary manslaughter. The State's theory at trial was that D shot Montoya to prevent him from escaping. The State presented testimony from D's roommate, Adrian Crispin, a fellow LVPD officer, that D told him right after the shooting that he had shot at the truck as it was moving away because it was about to get away. D testified to a different reason for the shooting. D testified he believed at the time of the shooting that the truck was being used as a deadly weapon to attack him and Sgt. Marquez, that their lives were in danger, and that he was therefore justified in using deadly force in self-defense and defense of another. D testified that he positioned his police car to try to 'block-in' the truck so that it could not escape. On cross-examination, D also admitted that he was aware of department policy that an officer was not to use his patrol car as a roadblock without ensuring the pursued vehicle had a way out of the roadblock. D testified that he was shocked and scared when D began to back up the truck. D believed that Sgt. Marquez had exited the police car and then had been knocked down and possibly run over and killed or injured. Thus, standing an arm's length away from the truck, D fired one round into the truck because he believed that his partner was in danger. He fired two more shots to the back of the truck because he thought the truck was backing up a second time to ram them again, and not because Montoya was trying to escape by negotiating the rock wall at the corner of Chavez and Valley. Sgt. Marquez also fired a single shot at the truck. The trial court refused to instruct on justifiable homicide. D was convicted and appealed on a number of grounds.

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LEGAL ANALYSIS:

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