Loren Wade on trial for murder

uA r i z o n A
s t A t e
u n i v e r s i t yu
tHe state press
u
A n
i n d e p e n d e n t
d A i l y
tuesDAY
may 29, 2007
u
Loren Wade on trial for murder
former asu running back charged
with murder of another former
asu football player in 2005
By BriAn inDreLUnAS
the State PreSS
Close Call
asu baseball defeats
ua in series to head to
ncaa regional
tournament despite
some shaky relief.
see story, page 8.
u
Headlines
U.S. and Iraqi troops raid
al-Qaida hideout north of
Baghdad
baghdad — u.s. and
iraqi forces freed 42 kidnapped iraqis — some of
whom had been hung from
ceilings and tortured for
months _ in a raid on an alQaida hideout north of baghdad, the u.s. military said.
military officials said the
operation, launched sunday on tips from residents,
showed that iraqis in the
turbulent diyala province
were turning against sunni
insurgents and beginning
to trust u.s. troops.
“the people in diyala are
speaking up against al-Qaida,” said maj. gen. william
caldwell, the top u.s. military spokesman in iraq.
after two weeks of trial,
the fate of a former asu football player could be decided
this week.
loren wade, a former
sun devil running back, is
charged with first-degree
murder in connection with a
2005 shooting outside a scottsdale nightclub that left another former asu football
player, brandon falkner,
dead.
the prosecution and defense don’t dispute that wade
reached into falkner’s car to
punch him with gun in hand
in the early morning hours of
march 26, 2005. neither side
contests that falkner was
killed when the gun fired and
he was shot in the head.
at issue is whether the fatal shooting was a separate,
intentional act or an unintended event tied in with the
punch.
“our position is not that
mr. wade’s not responsible
but that he did not commit
this intentionally,” said defense attorney ulises ferragut, who will continue calling
witnesses when the trial re-
sumes tuesday afternoon.
before wrapping up the
state’s case against wade
last wednesday, prosecutor
Juan martinez spent the better part of two weeks trying
to prove that the shooting fits
arizona’s definition of firstdegree murder — that it was
premeditated and intentionally or knowingly committed.
martinez has said wade killed
falkner in a “moment of decision.”
the prosecution called a
number of eyewitnesses to
the shooting, some of whom
said they had seen or heard
wade rack his gun, an action
that brings a bullet into the
chamber so that it can be fired.
falkner was shot as he sat
in his car outside the cbnc
nightclub, near scottsdale
and mcdowell roads, which
he had just visited with the
three other men in his car.
passengers cale readis
and tyrone bowers both
said they heard wade rack
the gun. but they differed on
whether he did so before or
after he punched falkner.
both men, though, said they
saw wade punch falkner with
gun in hand and then, in a sep-
thomas boggan | east valley tribune
ConCenTrATion | Wade listens to the opening statements from the prosecution during the first day
of his trial May 15.
arate motion, shoot him.
“he drew the gun back,
chambered it and then he
fired,” readis said.
antoine manning, a friend
of readis’ visiting from
washington state, was also in
the car and testified that he
saw wade rack the gun after
loading ammunition into the
weapon.
outside the car, haley van
blommestein said she stood
a few feet away from wade,
who was then her boyfriend,
repeatedly shouting, “no.”
van blommestein said she
and a friend had planned to
meet up with falkner’s group
after the nightclub closed.
but while on the phone with
wade as she walked out of the
club, she asked wade to pick
her up instead. van blommestein said she was telling
falkner about the change in
plans when wade walked up
to the car.
“loren hit brandon in the
face,” she said. “at that point
he had a gun.
“and then i saw the bullet
[hit] the left side of his head,
and his head fell and the car
shot forward.”
van blommestein said she
didn’t remember how much
See wADe Page 4
—AP
TrAffiC AnD
ConSTrUCTion
u from 7 a.m. today
through thursday, university drive from maple avenue to rural road will be
closed to one lane in each
direction for microsealing
and striping.
u starting today, the
east half of the 10th street
parking structure (formerly parking structure 3) will
be unavailable for ongoing
maintenance. decal holders for this structure are
allowed to park elsewhere
in the structure or in lot
16 and stadium parking
thomas boggan | east valley tribune
ralph freso | east valley tribune
viSUAL AiD | Prosecuting attorney Juan Martinez holds a diagram of the scene of the crime during
the opening day of the Wade trial May 15.
eMoTionAL | Wade’s then girlfriend Haley van Blommenstein
wipes a tear from her cheek as she testifies May 21.
4
The State Press
tuesday, may 29, 2007
local
after the trial
wade
Continued from page 1
time elapsed between the
punch and the shot and didn’t
see whether Wade racked his
gun.
Levise Robertson, the
friend who accompanied van
Blommestein when they went
to meet with Falkner, said she
didn’t see Wade holding a
gun, but heard the shot.
“[I saw] him walking up to
the car and the sound — the
pop,” she said. “I didn’t think
it was real.”
The prosecution also called
law-enforcement
officials
who testified about the investigation, the firearms examiner who tested Wade’s gun and
the medical examiner who
performed Falkner’s autopsy.
Steven Valdez from the
Scottsdale Police Department’s crime lab said he
found that the gun would not
fire without the trigger being pulled. But he said the
gun did not eject used bullet
casings as it should, and one
of the weapon’s two safety
mechanisms didn’t work.
Valdez said that if the safety on the grip of the gun was
ralph freso | east valley tribune
Teammates | Wade’s former teammate and current Chicago Bear linebacker, Jamar Williams, testifies May 21.
disengaged by being held, the
gun could be fired regardless of the setting of a safety switch on the side of the
weapon.
Dr. Mark Fischione of the
Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office said Falkner’s
gunshot wound was caused
by a gun fired anywhere from
six inches to three feet away
from the head.
Family members, including
Wade’s mother and Falkner’s
father, and friends have been
in attendance throughout the
trial. The high-profile case
also attracted Tempe resident Zeke Sanchez.
Sanchez said he often attends ASU football practices and has talked with both
Wade and Falkner after practice during their respective
years on the team. “I always considered them
both friends,” he said. “They
were great guys.”
budget
financial aid. “But originally
we asked for more to offset
the tuition increase.”
ABOR approved a 5 percent
tuition increase for the 200708 school year at its meeting
Nov. 30.
That increases resident
undergraduate tuition at the
Tempe and Downtown campuses $230, for a total $4,821.
Tuition at the Polytechnic and
West campuses will be $4,620,
an increase of $220. Nonresident undergraduate tuition at
all campuses increased 7 percent to $16,853.
But Senate-recommended
financial aid still fulfills AFAT,
only the second year since the
program began in 1989 that
financial aid would be fully
funded to the agreement’s
standards.
“If we end up with the
Continued from page 1
$13.4 million – requested by
Gov. Janet Napolitano and the
Arizona Board of Regents.
The Regents make up the
body that sets tuition and fees
for the three in-state universities.
Devin Mauney, undergraduate student government director of government relations and an ASA board member, said both USG and ASA
– an organization that fights
for financial aid for the instate
universities – endorsed the
amount the regents and governor requested.
“It’s a good first step, because it fully funds the program [AFAT],” Mauney said
of the Senate’s recommended
State Press editor Matt Stone
contributed to this report.
Reach the reporter at
[email protected]
The 14 women and one man
charged with determining Loren
Wade’s guilt or innocence may
start deliberations as early as this
week.
If the jury convicts Wade of firstdegree murder in connection with
the shooting death of Brandon
Falkner, he would be sentenced
to life in prison – either for his entire natural life or with the possibility
of parole after 25 years of imprisonment. The prosecution is not
seeking the death penalty against
Wade.
Jurors could also opt to convict
Wade of a lesser offense, such as
manslaughterornegligenthomicide,
which doesn’t carry a life sentence.
While the impact the case will have
on Wade’s life has yet to be decided, the March 26, 2005, shooting
has already spurred a number of
changes at the ASU, where Wade
and Falkner attended.
The shooting came at a time
of transition for ASU’s athletic department, which was preparing for
then-athletic director Gene Smith’s
mid-semester move to Ohio State
University, and it ushered in changes seen across the University.
At a press conference on March
31, 2005, ASU President Michael
Crow named an interim athletic di-
rector and also ordered an investigation into issues raised by the
shooting and the University’s handling of Wade.
ASU’s faculty athletic representative, Law Professor Myles
Lynk, put together a committee
that found athletic officials made
“errors in judgment” about earlier allegations against Wade.
But the committee said University officials could not have foreseen the off-campus shooting
of Falkner. The committee’s report, released in July 2005, also
called for improvements in campus safety.
As a result of committee recommendations, ASU began requiring
that students and staff report all
suspected violations of the University’s weapons or threats policies
to ASU police. The University also
launched a hotline where policy violations could be anonymously reported.
New athletic-department guidelines for dealing with weapons violations or threatening behavior and
for referring student-athletes to
counseling were also drafted.
The University’s campus safety
town hall meetings are also a result of a Lynk-committee recommendation.
amount in the senate budget,
it’s still a big victory,” Mauney
said.
Tiffany Troidl, the government affairs director for ASA,
said students played a big part
in lobbying the state legislature for financial aid, the organization’s biggest issue.
Earlier in the year, students
from all three instate universities sent more than 800 emails to their legislators urging them to increase financial
aid, Troidl said.
Mauney said members of
ASA have been working to increase state-based financial
aid by hosting a lobby day,
where more than 60 students
from ASU and UA visited the
legislative building downtown
to fight for funding.
Some students have also
gone down and talked to leg-
islators about the issues,
Mauney said.
But now that the spring semester is over, fewer students
are taking action at the legislature.
“Mostly it’s private conversations at this point between
the Senate and House and
governor’s staff,” Mauney
said. “It’s hard to have a big
event.”
However, if students want
to help, they can write letters
to their legislators by visiting
azstudents.org, which has a
link to the legislators’ e-mails,
he said.
The Senate and House must
reconcile their proposed budgets before further action can
be taken.
Reach the reporter at
[email protected].