Michael Astorga trial begins Monday

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The long-awaited trial for Michael Paul Astorga will start Monday inside Bernalillo County District Court.

Astorga has been sitting in jail since 2006 accused of shooting Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy James McGrane during a traffic stop in Tijeras.

“We've waited four years to be able to tell a jury our side of these events,” Astorga’s attorney Gary Mitchell said.

Mitchell said it could be awhile before attorneys in the case start presenting evidence because selecting a jury is expected to take some time. He hopes to have a jury seated by Friday.

“So many people read about it, were interested in it and a lot of people formed opinions based on what they heard,” Mitchell explained. “When you deal with that issue, it does take a long period of time to go through all that.”

Astorga’s story became very public the day Deputy McGrane was killed on March 22, 2006.

Investigators said Deputy McGrane pulled over Astorga for a broken tail light. Investigators believe Astorga shot McGrane because he knew he was already wanted for the murder of his friend, Candido Martinez.

“We're going to do everything in our power to track this man down and we believe he's a cold-blooded killer,” Former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said the day of the deadly shooting.

Afterward, a massive manhunt began. Astorga’s mug shot, license plate number and picture of the car he was believed to be driving were all over the news. While the search continued, Deputy McGrane was laid to rest on March 28, 2006.

On April 3, nearly two weeks after McGrane was gunned down, Astorga was found in Juarez, Mexico and arrested. He was handed over to Bernalillo County deputies after they scrambled to gather $2,000 in bond money to get him back from Mexican authorities.

“I came over here to just have a good time that was it,” Astorga explained after his capture.

Many hours were spent trying to locate Astorga, according to the FBI.

“Everyone has been up non-stop working as hard as we could to make sure this process was completed as quickly as possible,” FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons said of the search back in 2006.

Two years after McGrane’s murder, District Court Judge Neil Candelaria ruled that Astorga could be sentenced to death if convicted. The state Supreme Court later upheld that decision.

Governor Bill Richardson and state lawmakers banned the death penalty in New Mexico in 2009 but McGrane’s murder happened before the ban was signed into law, making Astorga eligible for the death penalty.

Last Friday, District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, who is trying the case, filed two last-minute motions. The first asks that the arrest warrant for Candido Martinez’s murder be allowed in as evidence. The second motion moves to block the defense from bringing up accusations of bullying by sheriff’s deputies during the manhunt for Astorga. Judge Neil Candelaria will hear the motions Monday.

Astorga's attorney Gary Mitchell believes that after all the delay hurdles are jumped, it will finally be in the hands of the jury.  "I know the attorneys will do their work and if the jury's fair and impartial and they have an open mind and they're courageous. By courageous I mean they don't pay any attention to outside influences," said Mitchell, "and base it solely on what they hear in the courtroom, I think that we can then say, we, everyone's had a fair and impartial trial. That's what we try to seek."

On Monday morning, the judge said he will not make a decision on the police mistreatment testimony until all evidence is introduced. The motion to admit evidence of the arrest warrant issued on Candido Martinez will be mentioned to the jury, but the fact that it was a homicide arrest warrant specifically will not be emphasized.

When interviewing potential jurors, the attorneys are asking about death penalty issues and if they have heard coverage of the story from the media.