Defense fights back in Astorga trial

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - In their first full day of testimony, the defense in the Michael Astorga trial Thursday continued to call witnesses who claimed to be the defendant's alibi witnesses.

"It was hard, it was hard, you just can’t believe, I’m still in shock over it," said Daniel Frank Lyon. "I don’t know how you get over something like that.

"All that time I knew and I didn’t know."

Lyon took the stand after being warned by the judge the previous day that he would be held in contempt if he didn’t behave on the stand.

Lyon became frustrated with District Attorney Kari Brandenburg during her cross-examination.

On Thursday Brandenburg jumped back into questioning Lyon, hammering away at him about why he had only recently came forward as Astorga’s alibi witness.

Lyon and his wife, Danielle Lyon who testified before her husband, claimed they didn’t know they were alibis because they thought Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy James McGrane Jr. was murdered on a Tijeras highway a couple hours before dawn.

Investigators believe Astorga shot McGrane to avoid going to jail, because he knew had a warrant out for his arrest on another crime.

The couple claims they only recently learned McGrane was shot just before 1 a.m., which is when they said they were with Astorga at a friend’s home in Albuquerque.

“I really believed it happened at four or five in the morning from the reports I heard,” Lyon said.

Brandenburg also made it a point to show jurors Lyon’s lack of credibility by pointing out that he once plead guilty to a felony for writing a bad check, which was later changed to a misdemeanor.

The defense then called Dr. Michael Spence, who owns a local forensic DNA consulting firm.

He testified that investigators on the McGrane case didn’t do enough testing on Astorga’s gold Dodge pickup truck, which was the vehicle Astorga is believed to have been driving when he allegedly shot McGrane.

It was the last vehicle McGrane pulled over being murdered.

Investigators tested for DNA on the truck’s steering wheel, dashboard, passenger door and passenger handle.

Although tests showed DNA from Astorga, his friend and two unknown people on and in the truck, McGrane’s DNA was never found.

“As I understand no samples were collected from areas where you’d expect to see material from someone who had been shot,” Spence said.

Before jurors were dismissed for the day, the defense called Yolanda Saiz, who was friends with Astorga and his wife, Marcella Poolaw Astorga.

Her husband, Marty Saiz, took Marcella to the east mountains the morning of the murder after she claims she was concerned about her home. She told jurors last week that she heard from Marty that an incident had happened involving an officer and a truck similar to her husband’s, but told jurors that she didn’t know her husband was a murder suspect and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary at her home.

Marty told jurors because of a medical condition he doesn’t remember many things, much less the night that Astorga was named a suspect in McGrane’s murder.

His wife, however, told jurors she remembers the night.

She supported the Lyons testimony, and said that they were over at her home along with Astorga at the time of McGrane’s murder.

“I saw him and I spoke to him,” she said.

Yolanda claims she didn’t know that Astorga was a suspect in McGrane’s murder until she got a call from a relative.

During a break from the jury, Astorga’s attorney told the judge he expects a “vicious attack” when prosecutors cross-examine Yolanda.

Prosecutors asked the judge again if he would allow them to tell jurors Astorga was wanted for murder as a motive behind McGrane’s homicide, and to explain Saiz expected testimony that investigators conducted overly-aggressive questioning and searches.

Yolanda claims investigators kept her outside for hours to question her about Astorga’s whereabouts while her baby was inside her home by herself.

“If they are able to leave a two-month-old baby laying there crying for hours without being fed or anything what else could they have done,” Saiz said. “I was afraid.”

Judge Neil Candelaria denied the prosecution’s motion again.

Astorga is expected to take the stand in his own defense Friday.