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CRIME
Kruse trial begins with opening statements
Published
Modified
BERNALILLO — A man's murder trial began with opening statements Jan. 12 at the 13th Judicial District Court in Sandoval County.
Adam Kruse, 58, of Rio Rancho, was arrested by the Rio Rancho Police Department for the first-degree murder Josiah Yazzie on Dec. 10, 2024, in the 600 block of Clayton Meadows Drive in Northern Meadows.
On the first day of the trial, after the jury was selected, Mariah Poole, the assistant pilot attorney for the Sandoval County district attorney's office, reminded those in the courtroom what had allegedly happened in an opening statement.
According to Poole, Yazzie was found in a car outside Kruse's residence with a shotgun wound to the head. His passenger window was rolled all the way down and the driver side window, rolled up, was cracked with several impact holes around it. Kruse was found near a gate to his backyard on the ground with an injury to his head. He allegedly told police he fell down.
Police, while securing the area, saw a shotgun inside the home next to the sliding glass door. Poole said inside the home, officers found a Mossberg 590 shotgun, complete with an owner's manual.
Poole said this would all be covered by officers during the trial. She said the jury would also hear from two neighbors, one of whom said they saw someone jump the fence into the backyard and then back over.
Lastly, she said, the jury would hear from the medical examiner.
Her expectation, she said, is that the jury find Kruse guilty of first-degree murder.
Defense attorney Heather LeBlanc disagreed entirely in her opening statement.
She alleged that police didn't want answers in the case and that they just wanted the investigation to end.
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She said that the neighbor who saw someone jump the fence insisted to police that person was not Kruse and that they saw someone run from the scene. LeBlanc added that Kruse's health prevents him from running at all. Additionally, LeBlanc said Kruse asked police multiple times what was going on and told them someone ran into him.
LeBlanc alleged that since police couldn't find another potential suspect, they settled with Kruse because he was there.
Also according to LeBlanc, police never performed a gunshot residue test on the gun, on Kruse or on his clothing.
She argued that the jury would find Kruse innocent because he wasn't the right person to begin with.
The trial resumes at 8 a.m. Jan. 13.
