Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
(TNS)
Jul. 8—Jurors acquitted two former Albuquerque firefighters Tuesday in a trial that hinged on the testimony of a woman who accused the men of raping her in 2023.
Aden Heyman, 48, and Anthony Martin, 46, wept and hugged supporters and family members after a judge read verdicts finding both men not guilty on all counts.
The 2nd Judicial District Court jury of four men and eight women deliberated only two hours following a trial that began June 23.
The verdicts end a high-profile case that rocked the city in July 2023 when a woman told police she was raped by three former Albuquerque Fire and Rescue personnel following a charity golf tournament.
The third former firefighter, Angel Portillo, 33, remains charged with three counts of criminal sexual penetration for his role in the incident. No trial has been scheduled in Portillo's case.
Both defense and prosecution attorneys told jurors Tuesday that they needed to base their verdicts on the credibility of the alleged victim.
"Testimony is evidence," Assistant District Attorney Crystal Cabrido told jurors. "There is no objective test for rape. At the end of the day, it all comes down to testimony."
The alleged victim testified during the first two days of trial, describing how she drank alcohol until she blacked out, then found herself in Martin's dark bedroom where two of the men raped her.
The woman told jurors she ran to a downstairs bathroom and fled the apartment through a bathroom window. Prosecutors argued that the woman had no incentive to lie about the encounter.
Cabrido said the woman trusted the men "because they were firefighters and colleagues of her sister" who was a ranking member of Albuquerque Fire and Rescue.
"Do you really believe that she's lying to you all?" Cabrito said of the woman's testimony.
Defense attorneys told jurors on Tuesday that lying is indeed what the woman had done.
"Consenting adults made a decision to have sex together, and then they did," Heyman's attorney, Jason Bowles, said in closing arguments. "She made a voluntary choice to have an encounter with those men."
Bowles argued that she immediately regretted her decision to have sex with the men. "She didn't want this to get out to her boyfriend or around the fire department," he said.
Bowles told jurors that the woman lied about her interaction with a nurse that performed the rape examination three days after the incident.
"She walked into this courtroom and she looked you all in the eye and she lied to you," Bowles said in closing arguments. "When a witness who is a main complaining witness comes in and lies to you, that's really the end of the case. You cannot convict (Heyman) or Mr. Martin if you do not believe her."
DNA evidence is irrelevant because Heyman admitted in his testimony that he and Portillo each had consensual sex with the woman, Bowles said.
Jurors acquitted Heyman on two counts of criminal sexual penetration.
Judge Britt Baca made the jury's job somewhat easier this week when she tossed the most serious charges against Martin of three counts of criminal sexual penetration. Jurors acquitted him of the last remaining charge of attempted criminal sexual penetration.
Prosecutors alleged that the woman drank alcohol and eventually "blacked out" during a pool party at Martin's apartment complex following a charity golf tournament on July 15, 2023.
"At some point at the pool she blacks out and at this point forward she only has flashes of memory," Cabrido said. She regained consciousness in Martin's bedroom and found the men raping her, she said.
"She wakes up upstairs, no idea how she got there," Cabrido said. All three men were naked in the bedroom and Heyman was giving instructions to Portillo, she told jurors.
The woman testified on June 23 that when she regained consciousness, she found Portillo having sexual intercourse with her and holding her hands above her shoulders.
"Aden's voice was giving instructions," Cabrido told jurors. "For example, he was saying 'she likes it like that'," she said. Then Heyman took over and had "aggressive sexual intercourse" with her, Cabrido said.
Cabrido said the three men knew the woman was blacked out.
"These three men were working together," Cabrido said. Heyman is an Emergency Medical Technician and was trained to evaluate a person's state of mind, she said.
"He should have known that she was intoxicated and unable to consent that night," Cabrido told jurors.
Defense attorneys argued that the woman refused to take a blood test following the incident and delayed submitting to a rape examination until three days later.
Bowles also argued that the woman lied about her interaction with the nurse who performed the rape examination.
The woman testified that the nurse advised her not to provide a rape-kit examination, Bowles said. That testimony contradicted the nurse's testimony that the woman was concerned about cannabis showing up in the test results.
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