Homicide charge stands in bicycle death

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The first trial of Miranda Pacheco, 26, in October 2011 ended with jurors unable to decide if she was guilty of vehicular homicide in the death of a bicyclist.

On Wednesday her attorney asked that Pacheco not be tried again, but District Court Judge Denise Barela Shepherd said no.

Still, it will be some time before Pacheco again faces a jury.

During the motion hearing Pacheco's attorney asked that the vehicular homicide charge be dismissed. Her attorney said the jurors who deadlocked in the first trial weren't clear on why they couldn't reach a verdict.

Shepherd said that should have been brought up during the first trial before the jurors were dismissed.

Albuquerque police allege Pacheco was speeding eastward on Paseo del Norte in March 2010 when she lost control of her car near Rio Grande Boulevard, jumped an embankment and crashed through a fence into bicyclist David Anderson.

Anderson was riding on the bike path and died at the scene.

Pacheco claimed she thought she had a blowout and doesn't know why she lost control, but prosecutors told jurors in the first trial she was driving recklessly because she was in a hurry.

Pacheco's second trial was scheduled to begin Monday, but has now been set for May 21. If convicted of the vehicular homicide charge, Pacheco could face up to six years in jail.