A judge Thursday dismissed a second-degree murder charge against former Las Cruces police officer Christopher Smelser. He was accused of killing Antonio Valenzuela with a controversial chokehold technique during a traffic stop in 2020. Justin Garcia, public safety reporter with the Las Cruces Sun-News who's been following the case closely, spoke with KUNM about why it was the judge — not the jury — who declared Smelser not guilty.
JUSTIN GARCIA: After the state rested its case, the judge opened up the possibility of hearing a motion from the defense requesting for a directed verdict. A directed verdict is essentially when the judge feels that a reasonable jury would reach the same conclusion. In this case, the judge felt like there was insufficient evidence.
KUNM: This was a second-degree murder charge. What is the burden of proof?
GARCIA: It's a murder that occurs kind of like in the heat of passion. In this particular instance, the question was — you know, it's pretty clear from the body cam video that Valenzuela was in the back of a truck that was pulled over and Smelser found out that he had an arrest warrant. As soon as Valenzuela gets out of the car, there's a brief foot chase and, you know, there's clearly an altercation that takes place. For second-degree murder, what the state would have had to have proved is that Smelser not only gained control in this fight, but also chose to enact violence on this person in a way that was uncalled for and unjustified.
KUNM: So, the judge said there was insufficient evidence to continue the trial. What was the case that the state Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted this case, were trying to make? And what evidence did they present?
GARCIA: They said that Christopher Smelser was a highly trained police officer, that he had a tactical advantage, that he chose to use a technique — the vascular neck restraint — that is known to be dangerous, messed up the technique, and — in the process — killed Antonio Valenzuela. The witnesses that they presented — with the exception of a firefighter —were all police officers. All but one of those police officers was a colleague of Christopher Smelser. And, when asked about it, they expressed that they were sympathetic towards Smelser, and they were sympathetic to the situation that he was in. And, you know, despite the fact that they were the state's witnesses, the guy who used to lead the Academy here in Las Cruces, Shane Brisco, the prosecutor asked to treat him as a hostile witness, and was granted that. And so you have this really kind of very dramatic 'Law and Order' kind of moment, where the prosecutor's grilling his own witness about whether or not he is on the defense's side. And, of course, Shane Brisco said no. He said he was on "the side of truth." But the prosecution team did bring to light the fact that he told the New Mexico State Police investigator that he hoped his testimony would exonerate Smelser, for lack of a better term. So, you definitely had a lot of the thin blue line kind of stuff here in terms of shared sympathy from the different officers who were testifying.
KUNM: How about the defense? What did they argue?
GARCIA: Smelser's attorney, Amy Orlando, argued that — because of the amount of methamphetamine in his system —Valenzuela essentially had like superhuman strength, and that the only way to have arrested this person was to use this vascular neck restraint technique. That, essentially, if Smelser hadn't have used this technique, that he would have had to have used deadly force. I think it's worth pointing out that an autopsy report did find that Valenzuela was killed, he didn't die of like natural causes or anything; that he died essentially from suffocation and that a major contributing factor to his death was the amount of methamphetamine in his system.
KUNM: The defense has argued that the neck restraint that Smelser used was justified. But the Las Cruces Police Department later banned this technique, no?
GARCIA: That's absolutely correct. Shortly after this incident, they stopped teaching it. Far as anyone could tell, the Las Cruces police department was the only police department in the state of New Mexico that was teaching this technique.
KUNM: And so, the murder charge against Christopher Smelser has been dropped. What does that mean for the former Las Cruces police officer now?
GARCIA: What's next for him is a really great question and not one that I have an answer to. The Law Enforcement Academy Board, which certifies cadets to become police officers also has the ability to remove that certification. Smelser's certification came up to the board a couple of months ago, and they chose to table it. So, he does still have his certification, although there is a sort of pending possibility of him having to certification removed still.
KUNM: And is there any chance for an appeal?
GARCIA: You know, as far as I understand, I think a directed verdict is as good as a jury verdict. But, I'm sure there's some path to appeal. So, we'll see.
