Deliberations resume in Las Cruces killing trial
Posted at: 10/29/2012 9:13 AM
By: The Associated Press
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Jurors will resume deliberations Monday at the trial of a man accused of fatally shooting a teenager in Las Cruces six years ago.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that 28-year-old Victor Paiz is being retried in the August 2006 death of Jesus Bustillos.
Paiz was convicted in Bustillos' death four years ago, but a state Supreme Court ruling forced the case to be re-tried.
Justices ruled prosecutors had lumped a separate drug-trafficking count in with the murder charge, which could have prejudiced the jurors.
Prosecutors at Paiz's second trial say Bustillos wasn't the intended target of the attack, but happened to be driving a vehicle belonging to the intended target.
A defense attorney says prosecutors couldn't show conclusively that Paiz was the shooter.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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