APD officers charged with murder in James Boyd case plead not guilty, released

Two Albuquerque police officers charged with murder in the 2014 shooting death of homeless camper James Boyd pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges and were released on their own recognizance by a District Court judge Friday.

Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez were arraigned on the second-degree murder and aggravated battery charges. As conditions of their release, neither will be able to consume alcohol, drugs or be in possession of a gun.

Perez will only be allowed to travel in-state, while Sandy can only leave the state for work purposes.

Sandy retired from the Albuquerque Police Department last November and now works in agriculture.

View: Timeline of the James Boyd case

Both men will have until Sept. 18 to be booked and released from jail and can only speak to each other during meetings related to the case.

Perez’s attorney, Luis Robles, says even though Perez hasn’t been convicted, the damage to him and his family is already done.

“Essentially, they’ve had to sell their home. He no longer has a job with the Albuquerque Police Department, and having three small children, they’ve lost health insurance. Just one of the terrible consequences of all of this,” Robles said.

The attorney also said people have sent death threats to the former officers.

“Now with this moving forward, he’s more vulnerable. Again, he doesn’t know who these people are making death threats against him, and now those individuals know that he can’t have a firearm,” Robles said.

For that reason, the judge allowed both Sandy’s and Perez’s addresses to remain unlisted from the public court documents related to the case.

Judge Neil Candelaria ruled Aug. 18 after a preliminary hearing that both will face a trial for Boyd’s shooting death in May of last year.

Their defense attorneys have argued that they shot and killed Boyd because he put officers in danger and had threatened them.

At the preliminary hearing, special prosecutor Randi McGinn argued that Boyd posed no threat to officers when he was shot and killed.

This story originally appeared at KOB.com