Will delays deny justice for Elvira Segura?

Neither the prosecution nor the defense has covered itself with glory in the case of a retired librarian whose accused killer admitted shooting at her — only to sit in jail for almost two years awaiting trial until District Judge T. Glenn Ellington dismissed the second-degree murder charge last month.

The accused’s lawyer successfully argued that numerous delays had violated the defendant’s constitutional rights to due process and a speedy trial. The trial had been scheduled to begin in August, which would have added up to 22 months since the suspect first was arrested.

Should that ruling stand — and perhaps it might have to, depending on case law — there will be no opportunity for justice for 67-year-old Elvira Segura, who was found dead in the bathroom of her Nambé home in the fall of 2016. That’s a travesty.

The accused, Robert Mondrian-Powell, 59, also deserves to put on a public defense, rather than simply slink away. He already has spent more than 20 months behind bars. The public, too, is owed an accounting. All are shortchanged if Mondrian-Powell cannot be tried.

This is no slam against the judge. Our system of justice does not allow defendants to molder in jail for months on end before a trial; in this case, public defenders even allege that Mondrian-Powell has faced physical and sexual abuse in jail. That is wrong.

However, police say Mondrian-Powell did confess to having a violent confrontation with Segura in the bathroom, then shooting at her and seeing blood on her neck. He also held a yard sale in the Nambé home they shared (he was her tenant, family members say) in September 2016. While the sale was taking place, her body is believed to have been decomposing in the bathroom. Mondrian-Powell took off, and both he and the dead woman’s car later were found in Las Cruces. That’s incriminating.

As Segura’s nephew wrote to New Mexico newspapers, it’s not as though prosecutors lacked evidence. Patrick Hoops, himself a criminal defense attorney in California, made the case: “Mr. Mondrian-Powell confessed to smashing Ms. Segura’s head into the ground, causing her to bleed, and then shooting her in the neck. You have a dead body and you have a confession. … Am I missing something? Is there some subtle nuance of New Mexico law that precludes this simple strategy?”

Despite this logical reasoning, delays have muddled the efforts to get to trial. Still, there is reason to hope that the case can be tried. It appears there are questions about how long is too long in a complicated homicide case — despite the confession, there is evidence from the state Office of the Medical Investigator that lists the cause of death as uncertain. A witness moved out of state and balked at testifying for a time.

There were delays in the defendant’s initial appearance that were out of the hands of prosecutors.

District Attorney Marco Serna returned to court last week asking Ellington to reconsider his ruling dropping the case, which he is doing. Serna also is promising to appeal should Ellington again decide that the delays have been too lengthy. The district attorney’s position is that under accepted case law, the holdup in putting Mondrian-Powell on trial does not violate the suspect’s constitutional rights. Considering the many complications of this case, we hope that he is correct.

Such delays, whatever the constitutional questions, remain troubling. In this case, they appeared to be caused by a combination of staff turnover in the District Attorney’s Office and personal disagreements among the different lawyers assigned the case, as well as the witness complications. None of the myriad excuses is acceptable.

When Ellington decided to dismiss the case in June, District Attorney Serna had little to say. While we are pleased he is asking for reconsideration — Segura deserves justice — Serna also owes citizens an explanation of how a homicide case was bungled so badly. He needs to, as administrator of the office, review what happened to make sure such delays are not repeated. No suspect accused of murder should walk out of jail without having faced a judge and jury, barring the actual killer confessing. When Serna finishes his review, he needs to share his conclusions with the public and detail what he is doing to ensure this never happens again.

Elvira Segura, her family and the public deserve better.