Witness testimony closes out week two of trial
Defense also calls for a mistrial in Payette County court Friday

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“You said you didn’t see the gun,” Bishop said. “You sound sincere.”

However, Mata said he wasn’t.

“I was hoping they would figure it out for themselves really,” he said.

Mata said he filled out a four-page interview statement in which he stated he did not see the gun.

“So you’re a liar,” Bishop said.

Prosecuting attorney Anne-Marie Kelso objected to the assertion, calling it argumentative.

“Well, I didn’t tell the truth,” Mata said.

As the interview continued to play, Fruitland Police Department Officer Kent Sloan asked Mata to tell him what he knew.

“I know you want the right person to be charged for this,” Sloan said on the interview tape. “So do I.”

Sloan stated Flores had five children and that he would do what he could to help the family find out what happened.

“It’s not right,” he said. “I’m a dad, so I am going to do what I can to get this done.”

Bishop said he believed Sloan was sincere regarding helping the victim’s family.

The defense then played audio where Fruitland Police Department Lt. Stephanie Steele continued to question Mata about what he had seen. On the tape, Mata told Steele he was having problems deciding what to put in the witness statement.

“Let me offer you a suggestion,” she said. “The truth is really easy to remember. If you’re writing a story, you have to work really hard.”

Steele then showed Mata an image of him looking directly in Almaraz’s direction at the time of the shooting. As he spoke to Steele, she interrupted him.

“Do that again,” she said.

Kelso asked for clarification on the request. Mata said he had inadvertently made a gun gesture with his hand. However, the defense felt this information could not be proven by the tape. Steele then showed Mata images from that night.

“Look at you, you’re looking right at him,” she said on the audio.

Mata then said on the audio what he was seeing was weird and that he only remembered hearing the shot.

Bishop then said he believed Mata was being honest with officers when he said he only heard the shot.

“How weird?” Bishop said. “You said it from your heart.”

Mata said people have told him his voice often sounds different than the way he truly thinks it does.

“I was conflicted,” Mata said in court Friday. “I wanted to tell the truth, but I didn’t want to be involved. I thought they would figure it out. There was a lot of people there.”

Mata also talked about seeing Almaraz at the moment of the shooting.

“He was the very first person I saw,” he said. “I even had eye contact with him at that point. I thought I was the one who had gotten shot.”

In the Club 7 surveillance video, Mata can be seen raising his arms at the moment he said the shot was fired.

Mata said he didn’t remember, but it seemed like he made that motion.

Bishop said he would bring up the gun issue after the jury left for the day. Judge Gregory Culet asked if Mata would be subject to recall.

“I don’t want him released that’s for sure,” Bishop said.

The jury then heard testimony from Monica Martinez, who was also at the bar that night. She testified she saw Almaraz was wearing gloves when he offered her a beer that evening. She also said she heard a conversation between Almaraz and another man at a home after the shooting.

“I recall Tommy Salazar saying, ‘we finally got him, huh?’ and Hector just kind of chuckled,” she said.

After the jury had been released for the day, Culet discussed Mata’s testimony with both sides. Bishop requested a mistrial because he believed Mata’s assertion in his testimony, where he indicated there was a gun, was new information.

He also said the prosecution was aware of the changed story before Mata took the stand.

Defense attorney Rolf Kehne said the prosecution should have provided information about the changed statement because the two answers were so materially different.

“It’s inconsistent with everything he said before,” Kehne said. “We came into this trial unprepared to impeach Mr. Mata.”

Kehne then said, before this new information was revealed, Mata was one of the most important witnesses the defense had. He had seen the shooting up-close and did not see a gun, which was helpful to the defense’s case. Now, however, Mata was appearing to assert quite the opposite.

Payette County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Lee disagreed with the assertion that the defense was blind-sided by Mata’s information.

“We do not agree that Mr. Mata’s testimony is the complete surprise that the defense says it is,” he said.

The defense said Mata had spoken to Kelso and said his testimony might change but that the prosecution offered no record of this exchange. Lee asserted that many of the witnesses’ statements had changed throughout the trial, including Mata’s.  Lee said Mata referenced seeing the gun in the audio and that he did not know for certain which testimony he would give.  

“We were not confident about what he would say when he took the stand until he took the stand,” Lee said.

Culet spoke on the issue.

“I’m going to make a judgment call and say it should have been disclosed,” he said.

The defense also had another issue. Kehne said portions of testimony given by Idaho State Police Forensic Pathologist Dr. Glen Grobin regarding blood was inaccurate.

He then requested the defense be allowed to call its own expert witness to correct what they felt was incorrect information. In his testimony Thursday, Grobin said blood is not expelled from an entrance wound, rather an exit wound. Kehne said he believed this information was inaccurate.

He also found fault with the reason Grobin stated the blood information.

“It’s not like the witness volunteered information that was unasked for,” he said. “The prosecution asked.”

However, Lee said the defense should have objected to the questioning at that particular time if it truly had an issue.

He then said information about blood appearing on a weapon and how fluid is expelled was asked by the defense, not the prosecution.

“They want to have an expert to back up what they got in the record,” he said. Culet said he would formally rule on both issues Monday.