Hearing will take another look at cops' roles in killing

At his trial on charges he gunned down a 21-year-old man in a drive-by shooting in a gang-infested neighborhood, former Metro Police officer Ron Mortensen testified it was his partner, not him, who fired the fatal shot.

That fellow former officer, Christopher Brady, had come forward three days after the Dec. 28, 1996, incident to confess he had been the driver of the truck but it was Mortensen who was the killer.

A jury believed Brady and convicted Mortensen of first-degree murder for the slaying of Daniel Mendoza and sentenced him to a life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Still Mortensen pointed the finger of guilt at Brady and at a hearing today he hopes to convince a district judge that he was wronged and win a new trial.

Since Mortensen's trial, evidence has surfaced from another Metro officer, Marc Barry, that Brady had talked before Mendoza's death about doing drive-by shootings.

Defense attorney Frank Cremen is expected to call Barry and numerous other officers to the witness stand in District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski's courtroom for the evidentiary hearing.

Brady was not charged in Mendoza's death although he admitted being, in essence, the getaway driver. His story to homicide detectives solved the murder and in his version he said he had no knowledge that Mortensen was going to open fire.

The district attorney's office determined Brady had broken no law.

That decision, however, has drawn fire from defense attorneys who contend that drivers in drive-by shootings routinely face charges despite claiming they had no knowledge one of their passengers had a gun or was going to use it.

But even if Brady is more deeply implicated in Mendoza's murder, it doesn't necessarily mean Mortensen will get a new trial. Mendoza's friends, who themselves could have been victims of the bullets from Brady's truck, testified that Mortensen was the one they saw firing the shots.

Mortensen testified that Brady leaned across the truck in front of him after grabbing Mortensen's pistol and fired out of the passenger window. Bullet casings littered the ground in front of the apartment near Paradise Road and Twain Avenue.

The jury, however, tried to re-create that scenario when they were given access to the truck and apparently were not convinced it was possible.

archive