Prosecutor appeals ruling for 3rd trial for convicted killer

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An attorney is challenging a judge's decision to grant a third trial to a man convicted of killing three members of a New Mexico family with a pickax in 2011. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports District Attorney Marco Serna has filed a notice of intent to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Nicholas Ortiz was found guilty of killing three members of an El Rancho family in December 2016 after a second trial. Ortiz's first trial in June 2016 resulted in a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Ortiz's attorney, Dan Marlowe, asked District Judge Francis J. Mathew to grant Ortiz a new trial. Marlowe, who defended Ortiz in the previous trials, is asking to withdraw from the case because Ortiz can't pay him.