ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) — A woman charged with murdering her ex-husband is out of jail after a judge released her out without bond. The judge did order supervision, but the victim’s family says it’s not nearly enough.
The judge ruled the defendant’s father would supervise her. He lives more than a thousand miles away, in Oregon. It has the victim’s brother furious.
“All he did was love people,” said Dennis Fluitt.
Fluitt is still struggling with his brother’s death. Don Fluitt was 54-years-old, a father and a firefighter.
Dennis says he and his family were starting to heal. That is, until a judge released one of the accused killers without bond.
“Something like this happens and it almost opens up all those wounds,” said Fluitt.
According to the criminal complaint, police arrived at Fluitt’s northwest Albuquerque home, late December to find a bloody scene and Fluitt dead.
Investigators arrested his ex-wife’s new husband, Terry White, when his alibi didn’t hold up and police found Fluitt’s DNA under his fingernails.
At the time, they didn’t think Fluitt’s ex, Christine White, was involved. Yet, that all changed several months later when police arrested Christine, too.
Investigators allege Terry White told his MDC cellmate Christine urged him to kill Fluitt saying, “You gotta do this, you gotta do this for your family.”
“There’s too much information that leads me to believe she had something to do with it and I’m not ashamed to say that,” said Fluitt. “I cleaned up my family’s blood in that garage. I know what they did to my brother.”
Yet, it’s not that simple for the courts.
Prosecutors filed a motion to keep White behind bars without bond, but in a response from her attorney, the defense argued, “She has strong, longstanding community ties and no significant criminal record.”
Plus, attorneys say the new public safety assessment recommended Christine be released on her own recognizance. They claim prosecutors have no evidence White is a danger to the public danger and just want to keep her in jail because she is charged with murder.
Ultimately, Chief Judge of the Second Judicial Court Nan Nash agreed and ordered her father in Oregon supervise her via phone calls.
For Dennis, it’s unacceptable.
“Christine has more rights as an accused murderer than my family has rights and my brother was brutally murdered,” said Fluitt.
KRQE News 13 reached out to Christine White’s attorney who says he’ll be checking in with her, too. He says the judge ruled prosecutors did not present enough evidence to keep White in jail.
According to court records, Christine White has one previous conviction from 1997 for battery against a household member.
