Despite a motion filed by her defense attorney, the daughter of a luxury auto dealer will face a jury of Kendall County residents.
Louis D. Martinez, the attorney representing Kendall Batchelor, 23, sought to move the intoxicated manslaughter trial out of Kendall County.
Batchelor is facing intoxicated manslaughter charges – a second- degree felony – after she was arrested June 6 on a warrant signed by Kendall County Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Debby Hudson.
She is accused of driving a car that claimed the life of motorist David John Belter on June 2.
Martinez claimed a Facebook page titled 'Boerne Area Informed Citizens' left nearly half the county prejudiced against Batchelor.
However, when tasked with proving the posts on the social forum had tainted the potential jury pool, Kendall County Assistant District Attorney Bob Lipo noted the defense failed to procure one example during the hearing.
'Martinez claims all kinds of people know about this case but failed to bring a single one of them in,' Lipo said in his closing statements to 451st state District Court Judge Kirsten Cohoon.
Martinez called one witness to the stand during the change of venue hearing: His own investigator, Stan Ramos.
Ramos testified he was the person who discovered the Facebook page in question, bringing it to Martinez's attention.
However, when questioned by Lipo as to whether the investigator verified the residency of any of the roughly 10,500 members of the community forum or whether any of the users were eligible to vote in Kendall County, Ramos confirmed he had done no such investigation.
Ramos also claimed there were about a dozen Kendall County residents originally willing to sign affidavits stating a fair trial for Batchelor was impossible with a Kendall County jury pool.
However, the investigator – who said he had roughly 40 years of experience in law enforcement and 10 to 15 years as an investigator for attorneys – said all but two of those witnesses backed out as time to ink the statements neared.
He claimed the witnesses backed out because they had been threatened and coerced. No witnesses were called to testify about these supposed threats.
By the time the motion was filed by the defense attorney, two witnesses had signed their names on an affidavit supporting the change of venue.
However, Lipo noted the two were mother and daughter. He also questioned whether the daughter was a resident of Kendall County, as sworn to in the court document, because she attends school in College Station.
Martinez argued that any potential jurors who saw articles published about Batchelor's case could be tainted because some of the information in the arrest warrant may be excluded from evidence.
The June warrant which resulted in Batchelor's arrest cited a .166 blood-alcohol level – more than twice the legal limit – but Martinez argued a later blood draw showed significantly lower levels.
The arrest warrant also states Batchelor's blood tested positive for amphetamines and THC. However, Martinez said the blood test he favored showed results which came back so low 'they couldn't be measured.'
Toward the end of the hour-long hearing, Lipo cited Murphy v. Florida, a supreme court decision he also referenced in his response to Martinez's motion.
Lipo said a jury does not have to be ignorant of the facts in a cases. He said publicity alone is not cause enough to change venues, stating publicity does not automatically equate to prejudice and that the jury-selection process would allow Martinez to weed out any tainted jurors in the pool.
'Mr. Martinez, it is a heavy burden (of proof) to bare. I don't think that you carried the burden, so I'm going to deny your motion to change the venue,' Cohoon said.
Trial begins Monday.
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