AZMEX SPECIAL 29 JUL 2019
Migrant's lawyers try to keep death penalty off table in 2015 Mesa murder case
Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press
Posted 2 hrs ago
https://www.azfamily.com/news/ap_cnn/migrant-s-lawyers-try-to-keep-death-penalty-off-table/article_18d27124-b250-11e9-a399-ab853ba83462.html
Apolinar Altamirano sized
File - This undated file booking photo provided by the Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff's Office shows Apolinar Altamirano, a citizen of Mexico
charged with murder in the shooting death four years ago of a convenience store clerk in a Phoenix suburb.
A judge has ruled prosecutors can no longer seek the death penalty against Altamirano because he is intellectually disabled.
The ruling means Altamirano will face life in prison if he's convicted of murder in the 2015 killing.
He has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
(Source: AP Photo/Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, File)
PHOENIX (AP) — Lawyers for a Mexican immigrant charged with murder in the 2015 shooting death of a convenience store clerk
are urging the Arizona Court of Appeals to reject an effort by prosecutors to seek the death penalty against their client.
Earlier this month, authorities appealed a lower-court decision that said prosecutors could no longer seek the death penalty
against 34-year-old Apolinar Altamirano in the shooting death of 21-year-old clerk Grant Ronnebeck because Altamirano is intellectually disabled.
Prosecutors argued the judge failed to make an overall assessment of Altamirano's ability
to meet society's expectations of him and adapt to the requirements of daily life as an adult.
But Altamirano's lawyers said in court records filed a week ago that the judge had already considered evidence of their client's weaknesses
and strengths in such "adaptive behavior," including his work ethic,
relationships with loved ones and ability to hold down a job and support his family.
Altamirano's lawyers said the state isn't saying the judge "committed legal error or abused his discretion,
but instead merely takes issue with the way in which he weighed and assessed the credibility of the evidence."
The case against Altamirano has been cited by President Donald Trump, who has railed against crimes committed
against American citizens by immigrants who are the United States illegally.
[RELATED: Video shows killing of Mesa QuikTrip employee over cigarettes (Jan. 23, 2015)]
Trump, who has created a new office to serve victims of immigration crimes and their relatives,
has invoked such crimes at rallies, pointing to cases in which people were killed by immigrant assailants who slipped through the cracks.
Altamirano, whose hometown is Damian Carmona in central Mexico, has lived in the United States without authorization for about 20 years.
He was deported after a marijuana possession arrest and returned to the United States.
He is accused of fatally shooting Ronnebeck at a store in Mesa after the clerk insisted that Altamirano pay for a pack of cigarettes.
Authorities say Altamirano stepped over Ronnebeck to get several packs of cigarettes before leaving the store.
He led officers on a high-speed chase before his arrest, and handguns and unopened cigarettes were later found in his vehicle, police said.
Altamirano has already been sentenced to six years in prison for his earlier guilty pleas in the case to misconduct involving weapons.
He still faces murder, robbery and other charges in Ronnebeck's death. He has pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges.
His trial was scheduled to begin Thursday, but it has been postponed. No new trial date has been set.
In an October decision, a judge prohibited prosecutors from introducing evidence at Altamirano's trial
that he was in the United States illegally.
The judge said the prejudice from Altamirano's immigration status outweighs any relevance it may have.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 barred the execution of intellectually disabled people.
END
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