Lovato's vehicular homicide trial begins

The seven-day trial to decide whether Alfred Lovato will be convicted for vehicular homicide as a passenger begins Tuesday.

Lovato, 40, is charged with vehicular homicide through an "accomplice liability" theory presented by the state. One of the key factors for the prosecution will be its ability to prove if Lovato aided and abetted former Santa Fe lawyer Carlos Fierro, who was driving drunk.

Lovato was the passenger in Fierro's BMW as it struck and killed William Tenorio, 46, on Guadalupe Street in downtown Santa Fe on Nov. 26, 2008.

Lovato and Fierro had been out drinking that night. Fierro is serving a seven-year prison sentence in the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas for vehicular homicide.

State District Judge Michael Vigil dismissed the case against Lovato in 2009, but the Court of Appeals overturned that decision in March 2010 after reviewing an appeal filed by Assistant Attorney General Donna Bevacqua-Young, the agency's DWI special prosecutor. Vigil will preside over the case again in the next two weeks.

Lovato originally faced charges of being a party to a crime and of vehicular homicide.

"My client was simply a passenger in a vehicle where there was a terrible accident," Bregman told The New Mexican in 2011. "My client did not commit vehicular homicide."

Although any passenger can, according to law, be charged with vehicular homicide if he or she knowingly gets in a car with an intoxicated driver, Bregman argued at a motions hearing last week that the state is trying to create a biased jury because Lovato was a state police officer. Lovato also was a member of former Gov. Bill Richardson's security detail at the time.

Lovato's defense may be, according to discussion during the pre-trial hearings, that Lovato was simply too drunk to recognize if Fierro was able to drive.

Police said Fierro had a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit when his car hit Tenorio, 46, of San Felipe Pueblo as Tenorio! crossed Guadalupe Street in front of the now-defunct WilLee's Blues Club.

Fierro is expected to testify for both the state and the defense. Whatever he says will be protected through a "use immunity" clause that will limit his testimony to this case and cannot be brought up in any future cases regarding this incident.

Lovato's trial is set for Tuesday through Thursday this week and Monday through Thursday next week.

Contact Nico Roesler at 986-3089 or nroesler@sfnewmexican.com.

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