News
2005-08-25
N.M. teen pleads
guilty in beating of gay couple
A 17-year-old
Santa Fe, N.M., boy has pleaded guilty to aggravated
battery and other charges in a February attack on two gay
A 17-year-old
Santa Fe, N.M., boy has pleaded guilty to aggravated
battery and other charges in a February attack on two gay
men. David Trinidad, the first of six defendants
to go to court, pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated
battery, battery, conspiracy, and criminal damage to
property. An attorney for another man charged in the
beatings said his client will not plea-bargain, while
a lawyer for a third said his client will plead to
some charges and testify against codefendants who go to
trial.
New
Mexico district judge Michael Vigil ordered a 15-day
evaluation of Trinidad before sentencing. The teen
could be sentenced as a juvenile, which could include
being committed to the state until his 21st birthday,
or be sentenced as an adult, in which he could get up to
seven and a half years in prison. He was on
probation for a rape conviction involving a 4-year-old
boy at the time of the beating, prosecutors said.
James Maestas,
21, and Joshua Stockham, 23, were attacked by a group of
men February 27 in the parking lot of a Santa Fe motel after
an earlier confrontation with them at a restaurant.
District attorney Henry Valdez has said he will seek
tougher sentences under New Mexico's hate-crimes law.
Maestas, who spent more than a week in intensive care, had
to undergo extensive physical and speech therapy, said
assistant district attorney Heidi Pircher. Stockham
suffered minor injuries.
Maestas was not
at the hearing. Stockham, who attended, had no comment.
Also charged are Isaia Medina, 19; Gabriel Maturin, 20; Paul
Montoya, 20; Joseph Cano, 19; and Jonathan Valdez, 23.
Lawyers have said prosecutors have offered pleas to at
least four, though none has appeared in court. Maturin
and Medina are charged with aggravated battery, battery, and
conspiracy. Cano, Valdez, and Montoya are charged with
aggravated battery, conspiracy, contributing to the
delinquency of a minor, and criminal damage to
property under an accessory theory.
Valdez's
attorney, Dan Marlowe, said his client will not take a plea
deal. "He's not pleading; he didn't do anything," Marlowe
said. Maturin's attorney, Thomas Clark, said his
client will plead guilty to some charges in exchange
for "truthful testimony" in possible trials of others
in the case. Maturin could face up to seven years in
prison, Clark said. (AP)
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