Accused cop killer in court for first retrial hearing

Mark Torre, Jr. was back in court today for the first hearing in what might be a series leading up to his retrial for the shooting death of fellow Police Officer Elbert Piolo.

The slain officer's mother, Jerelyn Piolo, will have to relive the pain she felt the first time the case went to trial.


"Getting back to court, emotions coming back that we experienced last year, all the other years....start all over again," she said.

Starting all over again--from two years ago when Mark Torre, Jr. was convicted in the shooting death of her son Elbert Piolo.

Torre and Piolo were fellow police officers. The two ended an evening of drinking at Torre's house in Yigo, and it's there were Piolo was shot.

During the first trial, the defense argued that Torre suffered from an alcohol-induced blackout, but Piolo called 911. Some of his final words please help me I'm dying he shot me.

The Supreme Court threw out the conviction because while under custody the responding officers questioned Torre about the shooting, and he was not read his Miranda rights--hence a body cam video of the interrogation shouldn't have been admissible.

Following the ruling, the Office of the Attorney General announced it would retry the case. Both sides were in the court today. Chief Prosecutor Basil O'Mallan is motioning to amend the original indictment to speed up the trial.

"Which was negligent homicide the lesser included with a special allegation and then the aggravated assault with a special allegation," O'Mallan said. "The motion to amend rather than go back to grand jury just allow to amend the original indictment because negligent homicide wasn't in the original indictment. But the jury found him guilty of that."

Also in court today Defense Attorney Jay Arriola moved to have Torre's conditions of release modified.

"On bail conditions your honor the court has imposed the same conditions previously imposed the defendant now only faces a third degree felony charge," Arriola said. "He had previously placed a $250,000 bond secured by his property, ask to modify the bail conditions have him released on a personal recognizance $5,000 bond."

Judge Michael Bordallo responded, "I'm going to ask you to just go ahead put it in writing."

While the hearing for further proceedings has been scheduled for Sept. 10 Piolos mom is holding onto hope.

"But we are confident we can get our justice," Jerelyn Piolo said. "This is the second trial and we hopefully god will favor us."