True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Court Rejects ‘Warrior Gene’ Defense in Santa Fe Murder

By HardBoiledNews Staff

SANTA FE, New Mexico — Presumably his “warrior gene” makes him tough enough for prison.

The New Mexico Supreme Court has upheld a murder conviction against a man who claimed his “warrior gene” made him predisposed to impulsive acts of violence.

Anthony Blas Yepez ad put forth the theory in a bid to get out of a 22-year sentence in the murder of his girlfriend’s 75-year-old step-grandfather, George Ortiz, in 2012. 

In a unanimous decision, justices ruled that a lower court was justified in excluding evidence about the theory which lacks any scientific basis, in the original trial in which Yepez was convicted.

Defense attorneys had argued that Yepez was incapable of forming the intent to deliberately kill because of his genetic makeup., but expert testimony on the scientific claim was excluded in the pre-trial hearing phase.

Yepez was convicted in 2015 in the killing of Ortiz during a domestic dispute. Yepez is serving a 22-year sentence for second-degree murder with additional time for auto theft and tampering with evidence.

“We hold that evidence of mere genetic susceptibility to a given mental condition is not relevant on the issue of deliberate intent, at least in the absence of evidence that such susceptibility is so well understood and has such strong predictive value as to be clinically validated as an indicator of the mental condition,” said the opinion from former Justice Judith Nakamura, who heard oral arguments in the case before her recent retirement.

The high court rejected the defendant’s request for a new trial.

An appeals court previously ruled that the lower court abused its discretion in excluding scientific testimony, but that no harm was done because Yepez was acquitted of first-degree murder charges that require the state prove premeditation.

Yepez’s girlfriend, Jeannie Sandoval, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for her role in the killing.

Shocking Video Shows Cop Shot in Traffic Stop, Then Bravely Fire Back and Give Pursuit

By HardBoiledNews Staff

LAGUNA, New Mexico — This shocking video shows the moment a New Mexico state police officer is shot during a traffic stop, but miraculously survive and fire back at the fleeing gunman before giving pursuit.

The footage shows Officer Sharron Duran get hit as she approaches the vehicle of Robert Benjamin Nelson, 28, of Scottsdale, Arizona for tailgating on the highway in September.

As Duran approached the passenger side of the truck, Nelson opens fire without warning, Nelson, squeezing off three rounds through his tinted, rolled-up passenger side window, police said..

After being struck in the hands and her bulletproof vest, Duran manages to return fire at the suspect as he pulls away. “I fell back because he hit me,” she explained. “I aimed at the headrest and started to fire my weapon.”

Robert Benjamin Nelson faces attempted murder charges

Despite her injuries, Duran returned to her vehicle and gave chase, bloodied hands on the wheel. A brief pursuit followed.

“I’m in pursuit,” you can hear her saying on the radio, “I’ve been hit, I’ve been hit.”

A short time later, Nelson pulls over on the side of the highway and gets out of his truck, but this time the officer kept her distance. “I want you to walk towards me with your hands up,” she yelled at Nelson. “You move, I will [expletive] shoot.” 

A federal search warrant said Nelson pulled over and gave himself up because he had called his parents while fleeing to tell them what had happened. His dad had told him to pull over. Nelson was taken into custody without further incident. 

As officers searched Nelson’s truck, they found the gun, along with his cat in a crate right under the line of fire. Meanwhile, Nelson’s father, who had circled back to the scene, said he couldn’t believe what his son had just done. “I’m just thankful the officer is OK,” he said. “Stupid, stupid kid.”

Duran was treated and released from a local hospital. Later on, she said her motivation for fighting her way through the pain was that, “I’m not going to let this person take me away from the family and the people that I love.”.

Nelson faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery on a police officer, shooting from a vehicle, and resisting, evading, or obstructing an officer.

Woman Charged With Drugging Her Grandad to Death to Steal His Lake House

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Candy Jo Webb (L) is accused of killing her grandfather, AJ Harden, and dumping his body in a trash pit

FORT SUMNER, New Mexico —  A New Mexico woman has been busted after a week on the lam for allegedly killing her grandfather in a bid to steal his lake house, authorities said.

Candy Jo Webb, 27, was picked up in Jacksonville, Florida after going on the run when cops became suspicious of her story that her missing grandfather was living in a made-up nursing home.

The body of 83-year-old AJ Harden was found stuffed in a tool box dumped into a trash pit behind a Fort Sumner house on October 15. New Mexico State Police say they believe the body had laid there since August, when Harden disappeared.  

When friends notified police that Harden had gone missing, Webb told investigators that her grandfather was in a nursing home in Texas. She later changed her story, giving the name of a retirement home that didn’t exist.

Investigators say Webb told some people that her grandfather died in his sleep, KRQE-TV reported. But she allegedly told her boyfriend, Garrett Beene, that she killed her grandfather by giving him Xanax and Ambien, after he had asked her to do it. 

The boyfriend told detectives Webb had been receiving money from Harden and that he believed she killed him to gain control of his lake house.

Harden’s body was found in a pit in the backyard of the house where Webb had once lived.

Harden grew up in Fort Sumner, served in the Navy, married, and became a truck driver. In his later years, he and his wife ran a hamburger stand.

Webb was arrested by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office after having fled to Florida, where she’s being held pending extradition to New Mexico. She faces first degree murder charges along with charges of tampering with evidence. 

Man Arrested For In-Flight Grope Notes Trump Saying OK to Grab Women

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The sick suspect cited President Trump saying it’s okay to grab women as his defense

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — This is the kind of leading by example you don’t want to hear.

A Florida man arrested for groping a woman aboard an airplane told officers later that it was okay because President Trump says it’s fine to grab women by their privates.

Bruce Michael Alexander, a 49-year-old heavy equipment operator from Tampa, was detained on Sunday after the Southwest flight he was on from Houston landed in Albuquerque.

The victim, who was seated in a window seat in front of Alexander, said she had nodded off shortly after the flight took off, but was awoken by the feeling of a hand sidling up against her right breast, federal prosecutors said.

Thinking it was an accident, she let it go, but was startled when 30 minutes later, she felt grab the back of her arm and then rub her right side around her ribs and bra line.

Prosecutors say the woman confronted Alexander and demanded to know why he thought it was okay to touch her and insisted he stop. She then asked a flight attendant to move her to a different seat for the remainder of the flight.

Upon landing, Alexander was arrested and charged with abusive sexual contact. After asking officers why he was being arrested, Alexander said: “the president of the United States says it’s okay to grab women by their private parts,” prosecutors alleged in their criminal complaint.

Wannabe Carjacker Discovers Football Players Make Bad Victims

By HardBoiledNews Staff

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — He picked the wrong dudes to mess with.

A New Mexico man who allegedly tried to carjack three football players coming off the practice field, had his face treated like a spiked football when the teammates snatched away his gun and pummelled him into submission.

Angelo Drew Martinez, 21, allegedly approached the players outside the Loma Linda Community Center on August 11, as they were trying to get into their car.

One of the the players said, Martinez was hovering around “acting sketchy as if he was trying to get in,” and when they asked him what he wanted, he said he needed a ride, KOAT-TV reported.

When they agreed to give him a lift, they say he kept changing his mind about where he wanted to go, and then pulled out a gun and demanded they get out of the car, police said.

As they exited the vehicle, Martinez apparently fumbled his weapon, so the men jumped back in, snatched the gun away and punched him in the face several times.

Angelo Martinez pre-beatdown

When cops arrived, they discovered the gun was fake, but they also found a knife tucked in Martinez’s waistband and a note in his pocket that read: “Give me the keys to your wip and a nobody get heart [Sic]. I know where you live so don’t make me kill.”

 

Serial Arsonist Nabbed in N. Mexico Church Blaze

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Gordon Schuler apparently has a thing for fire

RIO RANCHO, New Mexico — A serial arsonist has been nabbed for allegedly trying to burn down a New Mexico church just a week after being let loose from jail, authorities said.

Gordon Schuler, 23, has been charged with setting fire to the Peace Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho in the early hours of July 31. Fortunately, a fire crew leaving a nearby hospital, spotted the smoke and were able to snap into action quickly.

Officials say that likely saved the building, but the interior of the church was very badly damaged, prosecutors said.

Police immediately suspected Schuler, a known firebug who had just been released on probation on July 25 on charges related to two arson fires last year.

Authorities say Schuler has been eyed in up to 10 arson fires in the Rio Rancho area but hasn;t been charged in all of them due to lack of sufficient evidence.

An investigation revealed that a video surveillance camera from a nearby business captured footage of Schuler carrying a backpack and hammer the night of the fire. A backpack and hammer were recovered in the ashes of the fire.

Schuler has been charged with using fire to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce, as the church sends more than 2% of its revenue to a central Lutheran church in Wisconsin.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Lawyer in Biggest Social Security Scam in History May Have Fled to Mexico

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Eric Conn’s ads dotted the Kentucky landscape

LEXINGTON, Kentucky — A disability lawyer who went on the lam after being convicted of stealing over half a billion dollars in the biggest Social Security scam in history has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay back $170 million.

Authorities say Eric Conn, who was held under home detention in Kentucky after his conviction in March, in snipped off his electronic monitoring anklet on June 2 and went on the run.

The FBI says it has tracked Conn to New Mexico where he has been spotted buying gas and shopping at Walmart.  They say Conn fled using a truck owned by a friend who had registered it to a dummy corporation in Montana.

The truck has been recovered in New Mexico near the Mexico border, although officials say they have no evidence Conn had fled into Mexico.

“The negative impact of Conn’s presence in our community will be felt for generations,” said FBI agent Amy Hess. “His flight from prosecution has diminished any legitimacy and integrity he once held as an attorney and officer of the court.”

The FBI has tracked Eric Conn as far as New Mexico where he was spotted shopping in Walmart

Conn, 56, was a well known figure in Kentucky with ads appearing on TV nonstop and ambulance chasing billboards dotting the landscape. He earned millions by representing thousands of clients pressing for disability claims from Social Security. But it was all a fraud, prosecutors said. In all, they say he defrauded the government out of $550 million.

Con was also seen shopping in a New Mexico Walmart

Conn admitted he had routinely presented false evidence of disabilities, paid unscrupulous doctors to rubber stamp forms and even bribed a Social Security judge who approved thousands of claims for Conn’s clients in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A second judge has admitted retaliating against a whistleblower who tried to blow the lid off Conn’s sleazy dealings with the judge. Both judges are awaiting sentencing.

At his sentencing, Judge Danny Reeves gave Conn the maximum jail term allowed by law, but acknowledged that 12 years didn’t fit the crime.

“It did hurt the entire system and the reverberations are still occurring,” Reeves said, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

Serial Pooper Drives Optometrist in Roswell, N.M. Out of Business

By HardBoiledNews Staff

ROSWELL, New Mexico — It may be in Roswell, but the origin of this situation is most definitely not extraterrestrial.

A local optometrist says he is closing up shop after more than 80 years in business due to a serial pooper who has been defecating on his front steps for years.

Dr. Ken Leadingham blames a homeless man who has been sleeping in the bushes outside his shop.

“It’s been three or four years,” Leadingham told the Roswell Daily Record. “Everybody locally here knows the guy. He usually sits out in the yard. He’ll go pick up some beers and he’ll come and sleep in these bushes.”

Leadingham says he has reported the situation to the local police but they have been unable to act because there hasn’t been sufficient evidence to arrest the man. Police acknowledge having records of the complaints but confirmed they didn’t have enough evidence to do anything.

The optometrist says he was advised to install security cameras, but that the homeless  man destroyed them.

“We had put up [auth] security cameras which were torn down. We had put up a security light which he had torn down,” he said.

Leadingham said that after the latest episode, he had had enough.

“We tried to stay in business until this summer and through September so we can take care of the children, but after this incident we decided to go ahead and close the practice,” he said.

Ex-N. Mexico GOP Head Has Gun Stolen From Unlocked Car 4 Separate Times

By HardBoiledNews Staff

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Here’s a guy who may want to reconsider his position on gun control — at least when it comes to his own guns.

The former head of New Mexico’s Republican party had a gun stolen from his car on four separate occasions by the same thief because he repeatedly left the doors unlocked.

Allen Weh reported that four different Smith & Wesson 9mm handguns he had placed under the seat of his BMW SUV as he went to work at CSI Aviation in Albuquerque disappeared from the parking lot over the course of three months late last year.

Allen Weh

“Some of it was my own stupidity. I left my car unlocked. I should have locked it,” Weh, a retired Marine colonel told KOB-TV. “But what really bothers me is the criminal activity in this community that’s gone on and allowed to take place by judges. It’s got to end.”

The first episode occurred on Sept. 19 and it happened again on Sept. 22, Oct. 13  and Nov. 16, Albuquerque police said.

After the third burglary, Weh’s company, where he is chief executive, installed surveillance cameras in the parking lot.

During the fourth episode, Weh said he spotted a suspicious-looking man lurking around the parking lot and when he made a bee-line for his car, Weh confronted him. Weh told cops the man then opened the door to his car, pulled out the gun and brandished it at him before making his way to his getaway car.

When police were finally able to view the surveillance tape, which had been delayed because of technical problems, investigators immediately recognized 19-year-old Daniel Sandoval, a known local gang member.

Daniel Sandoval

When he was arrested, he admitted to stealing the four guns although he denied threatening Weh with his gun on the fourth occasion, cops said. Sandoval is one of two men charged with the murder of a deacon who was dragged by his own van after he tried to stop the two suspects from stealing it.

Weh chaired the Republican Party of New Mexico from 2004 to 2008. He ran in the Republican primary race for governor in 2010 but lost and in 2014, he won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate but lost to Democratic incumbent Tom Udall.

A firm supporter of gun rights, Weh said the thefts have done nothing to change his position.

“I’m a believer in not letting felons have access to weapons. But if they’ll come steal from me, they’ll come break in your car. They’re going to find a way to get a weapon,” he said.