Bruno Santos Dominguez, a key witness in the Sarah Johnson murder trial, recently avoided his own criminal trial.
Fifth District Judge Robert Elgee issued a written decision Wednesday, March 9, that granted a motion by the defense to suppress drug evidence found during a routine traffic stop. The decision to suppress evidence due to unlawful police behavior led to the dismissal of the criminal charges Santos faced.
Santos avoided a trial scheduled at the end of March after Elgee found police unlawfully extended a routine traffic stop. Santos had entered a plea of not guilty to the charges.
Following Elgee's decision, prosecutor Jannece-Marie Skeen made a motion to dismiss the case on Friday, March 11, and Elgee signed the motion.
As of Tuesday, Santos remained in jail on a $150,000 witness bond for his ties to the 2003 double homicide of Alan and Diane Johnson in Bellevue. At the time of the murders, Santos dated the Johnsons' teenage daughter, Sarah Johnson, who is currently on trial in Boise, accused of two counts of first-degree murder.
Following the murder investigation, the government discovered Santos' illegal alien status and deported him to Mexico. Santos later returned to the United States with special permission from the government to serve as a witness at the trial.
Following his return, Santos was arrested on felony drug charges stemming from a routine traffic stop on Fox Acres Road in Hailey. Santos was a passenger in a vehicle stopped for an illegal taillight.
In previous oral arguments, defense attorney Douglas Werth argued to suppress evidence, due to the nature of the traffic stop and alleged illegal police conduct.
In the written decision, Elgee affirmed the validity of the traffic stop, but ruled in favor of the defense that police unreasonably extended the scope of a permissible traffic stop.
The court found that after issuing a verbal warning, the police conducted unwarranted questioning which led to unlawfully obtaining the driver's consent to search the vehicle. The court granted the motion by the defense to suppress after finding police unlawfully obtained the consent to search the vehicle.
Elgee ruled the drug evidence was unlawfully obtained and furthered affirmed unlawful police behavior specific to Santos. The court found the police unlawfully seized Santos' identification card and unlawfully searched his wallet.
Although criminal charges brought against Santos were dismissed, he remained behind bars as of Tuesday as a result of the witness bond.
Werth stated he had filed a motion to set aside the witness bond and expects the court to consider the motion "any day now."
Blaine County Chief Deputy Gene Ramsey stated that after the court's determination of the motion, Santos could face deportation. Santos' status will be left up to immigration services.
Immigration services were unavailable for comment.
Bruno Santos Dominguez
