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LAS CRUCES – Was it a drunken night gone terribly wrong? A misunderstanding over an “insensitive” joke that cut a rift between two law enforcement officers deep enough to end in a fatal shooting? Was it cold-blooded murder or self defense?

There were only two people in Room 711 of the Hotel Encanto after midnight on Oct. 28, 2014, both Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies. One – Jeremy Martin – is dead and cannot tell his side of the story. The other is Tai Chan, who took the stand Friday to defend himself against first-degree murder charges.

The prosecution claims Chan killed Martin deliberately, shooting 10 rounds at his fellow deputy from behind. Martin, 29, was hit by five bullets in the back, buttock and arm.

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The defense claims Chan, 27, was defending himself against aggression by Martin.

Chan testified for three hours on Friday. The cornerstone of his story is that Martin pointed a gun at him, punched him in the face and, as Chan struggled to wrest the gun from Martin, “shots were fired” – the first by Martin. The prosecution disputed those claims.

According to multiple witnesses, the night of the shooting started like this:

The two deputies stopped in Las Cruces after delivering a prisoner to Arizona. They got a room at the Hotel Encanto and headed out for a night of bar-hopping at Hooters, two hotel bars and a pub called Dublin’s. They drank a lot – pitchers of beer, vodka and Red Bull cocktails, Jagermeister and cinnamon whiskey shots.

According to witnesses, the night became tense when the deputies began talking about a double homicide that had occurred two days prior: the execution-style murders of 13-year-old AnaMarie Ojeda and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Venancio “Venny” Cisneros. Martin responded to the scene, according to a Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

Chan told jurors that Martin brought up the double homicide while they were drinking at Dublin’s.

Chan said, “Jeremy said, ‘Those kids deserved to die because they were criminals.’ … And my argument was they did not deserve to die. They could grow up and change their lives. It was starting to get kind of heated,” Chan said.

“During that conversation, I said, ‘Well, you killed them. You didn’t get there fast enough.’ It was kind of to lighten the mood, to defuse the situation,” Chan said, admitting to his counsel that, in retrospect, “It was an insensitive comment.”

The tension eased, then rose again. Martin walked away for a time. It was an “up and down” situation, as multiple witnesses described it. But when a cousin of Chan’s dropped the two men back at the hotel before midnight, they walked inside with their arms around each other.

According to Chan, once inside the room, Martin brought up the double homicide again – he was still angry. Martin punched him and tried to kick him in the groin, Chan said. Martin then went into the bathroom and Chan left the hotel, he said, walking across the street into the parking lots of the Red Lobster and what was then a Golden Corral restaurant.

Chan remembers calling his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Leah Tafoya-Chan, and “being so confused and scared.” Tafoya-Chan testified on Thursday that Chan was incoherent during the call, making strange statements.

Martin ultimately found Chan outside and accompanied him back inside, Chan said, the two men saying “I love you, man” to each other. But, once inside the hotel room, still apparently scared, Chan said he locked himself in the bathroom.

Chan said Martin banged on the bathroom door, screaming “Open the (expletive) door” repeatedly. Chan said he opened the door and yelled, “Sit down, sit down,” hoping that Martin would take a seat “so we could talk it out.” Martin walked toward a desk and chair, but did not sit down, according to Chan.

“He turned around and he had a gun in his hand,” Chan told the jury. “It was in his left hand. He looked at me with this blank stare, like he was looking straight through me. I will never forget that look he gave me. And he just said, ‘I’m going to shoot you.’ Just a nonchalant, monotone voice. I just remember him lifting the gun up so fast and pointing it at me. I think I was just frozen. I thought that was it, and then I remember getting hit in the face.”

The gun, according to numerous witnesses, was Chan’s own duty weapon, a Glock 31 handgun.

Chan’s recollection of events is spotty from this point, describing the scene as “chaotic.”

“I started to struggle and grab and reach, and shots were going off,” he said, momentarily breaking down during his testimony. “I remember grabbing the gun and knowing I had the gun. … I turned around and I just started shooting.”

Chan followed Martin out the door and kept shooting as Martin ran toward the elevators. Chan said, “I didn’t see if I was hitting him” and when he realized Martin was running away, he stopped shooting.

“He was going to kill me,” Chan said. “I had to defend myself.”

The prosecution questioned Chan’s account of events.

Deputy District Attorney Gerald Byers asked, why would Martin grab Chan’s gun from his duffle bag when he was carrying his own duty weapon and a 9 millimeter Springfield pistol packed in his own bag?

James Martin, the victim’s brother, told the jury that his brother was right-handed and did not shoot with his left hand.

Police found Martin at the foot of the elevator doors, collapsed and bleeding on the lobby floor. He died of his injuries at a nearby hospital. Police found Chan at the top of a hotel stairwell, barefoot, and with blood on his hands and face.

Byers asked why, when apprehended by police, Chan never mentioned Martin’s name? Chan told police repeatedly there was “danger” inside the hotel and a bomb on the third floor – a claim he admitted to jurors was false, but which he repeated in order to get cops’ attention, he said.

Chan never asked police about Martin. He told jurors the first he heard about Martin was from a detective six hours after his arrest, that Martin was dead.

The Martin family declined to speak to the Journal, saying they would reserve comment until after the trial concluded. Martin’s widow, Sarah Martin, shook her head in silence during Chan’s testimony.

Closing arguments are expected on Monday.