Trial begins in 2022 killing of guard at Calvary Church

Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a man charged with using a truck to strike and kill a security guard at Calvary Church in 2022.

Prosecutors allege that Marc Ward, 36, used his father’s Ford F150 to hit 61-year-old Daniel Bourne as he approached the truck in the church parking lot in Northeast Albuquerque.

Ward is charged with first-degree murder in Bourne’s killing. The 2nd Judicial District Court trial is expected to continue through March 6 before Judge David Murphy.

Skip Heitzig, Calvary’s senior pastor, and about two dozen other church members, filled the gallery of the courtroom Tuesday when attorneys made opening statements.

Ward’s attorney told jurors that prosecutors lack security video or eyewitness testimony to prove that Ward intentionally killed the security guard.

Calvary Church, one of New Mexico’s largest churches, has a 25-acre, seven-building campus on Osuna NE, just west of Jefferson, Calvary’s director of security, Vincent Harrison, testified Tuesday. The church has a membership of 10,000 to 12,000, he estimated.

Bourne was wrapping up his security shift at about 9:15 p.m. on Sept. 23, 2022, when he noticed a blue pickup at the north end of the church parking lot.

“This case is about Daniel Bourne’s last moments,” Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch said in opening statements. “Marc Ward violently struck Dan once, probably twice, murdering him with his father’s F150 in the parking lot of Calvary Church.”

Ward then dragged Bourne’s body to an arroyo at the north end of the church property, “disposing of it like it was nothing,” she told jurors.

Prosecutors did not suggest a possible motive for the killing.

Harrison testified that he drove to the church after Bourne stopped responding to text messages. Harrison said he attempted lifesaving measures, but Bourne failed to respond, he said.

Bourne, a former commander with Bernalillo County Fire Rescue, sent two group text messages and two photos of the truck to his supervisor and other security in the moments before he was killed.

“Dan always documented his interactions when he approached people, and on Sept. 23, he sent two text messages to his workgroup,” Brandenburg-Koch told jurors.

Prosecutors also played a video recording that Bourne made on his cellphone, which he clipped onto his pocket, largely obscuring the camera but recording the sound.

Brandenburg-Koch said the sounds on the 11-minute video suggest that Ward accelerated toward Bourne, who fired a handgun twice at the truck.

Other sounds suggest that after he struck Bourne, Ward turned the truck around, accelerated and struck Bourne a second time, she said.

Douglas Wilber, Ward’s attorney, said prosecutors’ interpretation of the sounds in the video are conjectural and fail to show what actually happened that evening.

“We know that Mr. Bourne was alive throughout the duration of that video because he is still breathing,” Wilber told jurors.

“The prosecution wants to say that this was a murder, but they can’t show that this was a murder,” he said.

Albuquerque police who responded to Harrison’s 911 call found a blood trail and tire tracks leading to the arroyo where Bourne was found, according to a criminal complaint. Bourne’s body showed “drag marks” and major head trauma. He died at the scene.

Police found a single 9mm bullet casing where the tire marks and blood trail began, but Bourne’s gun and other items were missing, the complaint said.

The photo Bourne sent to coworkers showed the truck’s license number, which was registered to Ward’s father, police said. Detectives found the vehicle in the family’s driveway.

Police searched the truck and found a dent in the driver’s door consistent with a “bullet being deflected” and hair and skin in a headlight crack, along with other damage, the complaint said.

Brandenburg-Koch said a police search at the family’s home turned up a pair of jeans with blood stains that matched Bourne’s DNA.