Trial begins in fatal stabbing on city bus

Charles Madrid, 20, told a group of unruly bus riders to "calm down" and "stop acting like children" in the moments before he fatally struck another man in the neck with a knife, attorneys told jurors Monday on the first day of Madrid's trial.

Madrid's attorney told jurors that his client, then 19, acted in self-defense while trying to break up a fight among several riders on a city bus in February.

Prosecutors alleged in opening statements that Madrid was the aggressor who intentionally stabbed 44-year-old Adrian Marthell on Feb. 13, then ran from the bus as Marthell died from the wound to his neck.

Madrid is charged with second-degree murder in Marthell's killing. His trial in 2nd Judicial District Court is scheduled through Wednesday before Judge Joseph Montano.

Madrid was riding the city bus to the Mark Armijo Academy Charter School at the time of the incident. His attorney, Neal Brubaker, said Madrid interceded in a scuffle after Marthell physically struck another rider on the bus.

"Charles (Madrid) is raising his voice, telling them to stop acting like children," Brubaker said. "And when he does this, Mr. Marthell stands up again. And it's at this point that you see (Madrid) kind of lunge and reach forward," which he later described as a "bluff lunge" intended to "scare and frighten" the older man, but not to hurt him.

Albuquerque police were dispatched to Central and Coors NW shortly before 9 a.m. Feb. 13 in response to a 911 caller who said a man had been stabbed inside an ABQ Ride bus and the offender had run from the scene.

Officers entered the bus where they found Marthell unconscious and with a stab wound to his neck. He died at the scene.

Prosecutors showed jurors a portion of security video from the bus that appeared to show a scuffle on the ABQ Ride bus ending with the fatal stabbing.

Prosecutor Guinevere Ice said the security video would be the key evidence in Madrid's trial.

"You are going to see what I would characterize as a kind of scuffle" among Marthell and other riders, Ice told jurors. "You are going to see that (Madrid) yells at these individuals. He's standing up and he has a knife on his person. And you're also going to see that the evidence shows Mr. Martel was unarmed."

The security video also shows Madrid strike at Marthell, then run from the bus as Marthell falls to the floor, she said.

Security video showed that Marthell boarded the westbound city bus at Central and San Mateo at 8:06 a.m., according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Madrid boarded at 8:15 a.m. at the Nob Hill Albuquerque Rapid Transit shot.

At 8:44 a.m., a shoving match erupted between Marthell and two unidentified riders at the rear of the bus, the complaint said. Madrid was seated near the front of the bus and was not involved in the initial fight, the complaint said.