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Opening arguments are scheduled today in a 2004 murder case that made the upscale, gated community of Tanoan suddenly seem less safe from horrific crime.

Ernest Jose Gallegos, 46, described by law enforcement officials as a habitual criminal with a lengthy history of robberies and a possible connection to a 1986 homicide, is charged with first-degree murder and seven other counts in the Aug. 24, 2004, shooting death of James Hogan.

Jury selection began Monday in the Albuquerque courtroom of state District Judge Neil Candelaria. The case has taken more than two years to come to trial in part because of turnovers among Gallegos' public defenders. Mark Earnest, his fourth, will represent him at trial.

Hogan, a 57-year-old retired Sandia National Laboratories employee, and his wife were terrorized by a black-clad intruder who broke into their home at 11300 Woodmar Lane N.E. in Tanoan.

The man claimed to be a hired hit man and said he had killed their dogs and cased their home for weeks. The man then bound and gagged them, covered their eyes with duct tape and demanded their valuables and a combination to the safe, according to a criminal complaint.

Hogan's wife told detectives the intruder then took her husband into the garage where she heard yelling and then four loud sounds.

Gallegos may have sought revenge against Hogan for accusing him of stealing a watch while Gallegos, a mirror and glass installer, was working in the home on a remodeling job six weeks before, the complaint states.

Hogan had found the watch in the safe, the complaint states.

The homicide shocked the exclusive subdivision, where visitors must pass a guard shack to enter and some of Albuquerque's most high-profile residents live.

Gallegos had been in Albuquerque police custody briefly after an officer spotted him atop a wall around the Tanoan perimeter near a white truck parked on Academy Road Northeast.

But Gallegos escaped by jumping back over the Tanoan wall, police have said. He remained elusive for nine months despite heavy media attention, including a segment on "America's Most Wanted." He also ranked No. 2 on the U.S. Marshals Service list in New Mexico.

Gallegos was later captured in Juarez, Mexico.

Gallegos was a suspect in the 1986 shooting death of Denver businessman Guy Funkhouser, who was found dead in the parking lot of a Menaul Boulevard motel. Police say they have never compiled sufficient evidence against Gallegos to charge him.

Family members have said Gallegos is a religious man who worked for the church, ran his own glass business and kept away from drugs, cigarettes and gambling.

Meanwhile, Gallegos' wife, Renee Gallegos, is still awaiting the outcome of a federal lawsuit she filed in 2004 against Albuquerque police agents Rob DeBuck and Joe Martinez and the city.

She charged that police searching for her husband in their home at 212 Cromwell Ave. S.W. caused extensive damage and traumatized her and their son, Isaac, then 3, when officers pointed guns at him. The case, before U.S. District Judge Judith Hererra, is pending.