Judge finds probable cause to charge Otero County deputy with murder
Otero County deputy Jacob Diaz-Austin鈥檚 dash camera shows Elijah Hadley dropping a BB gun before the deputy opened fire in June. Hadley was killed in the shooting.
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An Alamogordo judge on Friday found sufficient evidence to charge an Otero County sheriff鈥檚 deputy with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a boy outside Mescalero in June.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman earlier this month charged Jacob Diaz-Austin, 28, of Las Cruces, in the June 25 death of 17-year-old Elijah Hadley in a highway median near Mescalero.
District Judge Angie Schneider ordered the case bound over for trial in 12th Judicial District Court following a preliminary hearing on Thursday. Bregman and Chief Deputy District Attorney Natalie Lyon presented evidence during the hearing supporting the charge, including videos, photos and testimony, Bregman鈥檚 office said Friday in a statement.
Prosecutors in the 12th Judicial District had handed off the case to Bregman鈥檚 office to avoid a conflict of interest.
Diaz-Austin was placed on paid administrative leave. Otero County Sheriff David Black has said Diaz-Austin will remain in the agency鈥檚 employment unless he is convicted.
Diaz-Austin responded at 10:45 p.m. June 25 to a call for a welfare check about a teenager walking in the median of U.S. 70 west of Mescalero.
Hadley was holding an air-powered pellet gun when Diaz-Austin arrived at the scene and fired multiple gunshots, fatally injuring the teenager, according to a New Mexico State Police news release.
Hadley, a Mescalero Apache Tribe member, was holding 鈥渨hat appeared to be a firearm鈥� when the deputy fired, the news release said. 鈥淎gents later learned the object that Hadley presented at the deputy was an airsoft gun,鈥� or replica pellet gun.
Video captured by the dash camera of a patrol vehicle and widely viewed on social media showed the gun left Hadley鈥檚 hands before the deputy fired. The video shows that Hadley repeatedly shouted 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a BB gun鈥� after he was shot and fell to the ground.
Diaz-Austin鈥檚 attorney, Charles McElhinney, filed a motion in January seeking dismissal of the case, arguing that prosecutors filed a criminal information 鈥渃ompletely devoid of identification of any witnesses鈥� as required by state law. That motion was denied Feb. 19.
