The guilty verdict Friday in the first-degree murder trial of Martin S. Mendiola was the last hurrah for veteran prosecutor Diana K. May.

After trying 17 homicide trials in 17 years, May has resigned as chief deputy district attorney for the 4th Judicial District to take a job with the El Paso County Attorney’s Office starting May 9. Her new job will be in the civil litigation office, defending the county from lawsuits.

May — who worked for four district attorneys, including two weeks for now Colorado Attorney General John Suthers — acknowledged recently that moving from life and death drama of high-profile homicides to civil law will be an adjustment.

“I just think I’m at a point in my career where I’m looking forward to learning a new area of the law,” said May, who started with the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in January 1997 after working as a prosecutor for just over two years with the DA’s office in Lamar.

But she added, “I will miss the excitement of this job, no doubt.”

She almost didn’t get hired as a prosecutor because of her name. District Attorney Dan May, no relation, was in charge of interviewing candidates back then. At the time, the office already had people named May, Mays and Kay.

But after interviewing her, Dan May decided to make her a finalist. It’s a decision he never regretted, despite the fact that their mail got mixed up.

“I would trust her with any case in this jurisdiction,” he said.

“On the right cases she can be tough as nails and in the appropriate cases, she’s highly compassionate,” he said.

The County Attorney’s Office originally wanted May to start sooner, but she wanted to try one last case involving a man accused of sexually assaulting a Colorado Springs woman and cutting her throat while her toddler son was in the room.

May was at the crime scene as the on-call DA on a very cold Jan. 6, 2004, the day Colorado Springs police responded to a mobile home where the body of Patricia Gonzalez-Arvizu was found. Her unharmed child was found nearby, with his mother’s blood on his shoes.

Mediola was arrested just days before he was scheduled to be released from prison after investigators said they were able to match his DNA to evidence found at the crime scene.

In her office, May keeps a framed photograph of Gonzalez-Arvisu and her child. Like a lot of homicides, this case stuck with May.

“The cases stay with you as a prosecutor,” she said. “They stay in your mind and in your heart.”

Born in Kansas, May got the inspiration to become a prosecutor from a family friend who served both as a district attorney and a judge.

She has aspirations of becoming a judge some day as well. She was on the short list of finalists for a judgeship last year.

In her office, she also keeps pictures of Jared Jensen and Kenneth Jordan, two slain Colorado Springs police officers whose accused killers she prosecuted.

She also keeps a pair of six-packs of diet Dr. Pepper, her soft drink of choice while in the middle of a homicide trial.

She’s been trying to kick her Dr. Pepper habit periodically, but then another homicide trial comes along.

Perhaps her new job will get her to finally kick that habit.

For more court coverage, visit “The Sidebar” blog at gazettedev.gazette.com.