Second Trial Starting In Vehicular Homicide

A Bernalillo County jury is expected to hear opening arguments this morning in the second vehicular homicide trial for Miranda Pacheco, who is charged in the March 2010 death of 56-year-old bicyclist David Anderson.

The first trial ended in a hung jury last September.

Anderson was killed when Pacheco lost control of her car on Paseo del Norte, crossed several lanes and ran into him on a bicycle path that runs parallel to Paseo near Rio Grande Boulevard.

State District Judge Denise Barela-Shepherd spent Monday morning listening to pretrial motions from prosecutors and Pacheco’s defense lawyer.

Among the pre-trial issues the parties agreed to were limiting some emotionally charged testimony from Anderson’s widow and not allowing certain testimony from the first trial.

Pacheco was speeding and driving recklessly on March 22, 2010, as she traveled east on Paseo del Norte, according to prosecutors. She was in the far left lane when she lost control of her car.

The car crossed two lanes of traffic, went up a dirt embankment, broke through a barbed wire fence between Paseo and the bike path, and hit Anderson, according to prosecutors.

Authorities said there was no evidence Pacheco was either impaired or using her cellphone at the time of the crash.

During the first trial, Pacheco testified that a black car was tailgating her and that she lost control while changing lanes to get out of the black car’s path.

Prosecution witnesses testified that they saw Pacheco speeding and weaving in and out of traffic just before the crash.
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal