State v. Ochoa

41 N.M. 589, 72 P.2d 609 (1937)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

Navarro, Campos, and Lovato had been arrested on warrants for unlawful breaking and entering of a certain house. The local community was in an uproar. A mass meeting was held in Spanish-American Hall, and a committee was appointed to confer with Sheriff Carmichael regarding Navarro. The committee demanded Navarro's release. This request was denied. A request to speak with Navarro was likewise was denied by the sheriff. The next day a crowd of 125 people, included in which were many women and children, gathered on the sidewalk and in the street in front of the office of the justice of the peace. The could not be admitted to the hearing because the room only had 25 seats. The crowd grew threatening. The sheriff directed that Navarro should be removed through the rear door. Navarro told the crowd outside by a motion with his arms suggestive that he was being removed through the rear door. The crowd converged eastwardly upon the rear entrance to the justice's office, forming in a semicircle around the entrance. Things were getting out of hand, and an officer hurled a tear gas bomb to the rear and westwardly into the crowd in the alley. Almost simultaneously with the detonation from explosion of the bomb, a shot was fired somewhat to the rear of the officers accompanying the prisoner. A second shot followed and struck the sheriff in the left side of the face and passed out of his body on the right side of his neck. The first shot had struck the sheriff in the left side, just under the left arm, passed through his chest and out into his right shoulder. He died instantly. A gunfight ensued with the total number of shots fired during the affray being twelve to fifteen. Sheriff Carmichael and the two others were killed; Deputy Wilson had been seriously wounded. Two other members of the crowd had received wounds. Ochoa (D) and Avita (D) were in the group that fired the shots, and they remained there while the shots were being fired, beating on a deputy who was wounded while he was on the ground. Both defendants and Velarde (D) were convicted of second-degree murder under aiding and abetting. Ds appealed.