New Mexico Supreme Court Decisions 2016
Date: December 22, 2016
Docket Number: 34,094
Justia Opinion Summary: Laticia Lucero (Baby) died on June 9th, 2010, just 47 days after she was born to Mother and defendant Jadrian “Jay” Lucero. Baby’s autopsy revealed that she died as a result of the type of injuries one might expect after…
Date: December 1, 2016
Docket Number: 35,249
Justia Opinion Summary: New Mexico Rule of Evidence 11-410 NMRA stated that evidence of a nolo contendere plea made in settlement of a criminal proceedings was not admissible in civil proceedings against a defendant making such a plea. In this…
Date: November 7, 2016
Docket Number: 36,142
Justia Opinion Summary: Judge Daniel Viramontes wrote a letter dated March 10, 2016 to New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, informing her of his intent to resign as district court judge of Division 4 of the Sixth Judicial District Court,…
Date: October 20, 2016
Docket Number: 34,993
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue presented for the Supreme Court's review giving rise to this case was a collateral of the underlying judgment. Specifically, the issue was whether it was apparent on the face of a 1948 quiet title judgment that…
Date: October 13, 2016
Docket Number: 35,395
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jason Bailey appealed his conviction for second-degree criminal sexual contact of a minor. Defendant argued on appeal that admission of evidence of his uncharged conduct was improper under Rule 11-404(B)(1)…
Date: October 13, 2016
Docket Number: 35,681
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico certified a question of New Mexico law to the state Supreme Court. The question centered on whether a worker injured in the course of employment by a…
Date: September 26, 2016
Docket Number: 35,035
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jennifer Stephenson placed her two-year-old son Isaiah in his room at bedtime and locked the door for the night. Isaiah’s father heard Isaiah whimpering the next morning and found him with his legs pinned…
Date: September 22, 2016
Docket Number: 35,101
Justia Opinion Summary: Eileen Dalton purchased two used cars under separate finance contracts which contained provisions that retained self-help remedies for both parties, and that allowed either party to compel arbitration of any claim or…
Date: September 22, 2016
Docket Number: 35,446
Justia Opinion Summary: In this appeal, the issue presented for the New Mexico Supreme Court's review centered on the scope of the New Mexico State Engineer’s regulatory authority over use of surface water in New Mexico when it has been…
Date: August 25, 2016
Docket Number: 35,451
Justia Opinion Summary: Patricia Garcia induced an eighty-four-year-old widower, Page Kent, to believe that she was his loving partner and thereby gained access to his bank accounts and depleted over $50,000 of his life’s savings. A jury…
Date: August 18, 2016
Docket Number: 35,198
Justia Opinion Summary: Lenard E. Noice worked as a conductor for Petitioner BNSF Railway Company (BNSF). He fell from a BNSF train that was moving at speed and perished. Respondent, Lenard Noice II, acting as personal representative for Noice…
Date: August 18, 2016
Docket Number: 35,286
Justia Opinion Summary: Mary Herrera, when acting as the Secretary of State, terminated the employment of two employees of the Secretary of State’s office, James Flores and Manny Vildasol. In separate actions, Flores and Vildasol each asserted…
Date: August 8, 2016
Docket Number: 34,733
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Anthony Samora was accused of luring a sixteen-year-old male into his truck by deception, driving him to a secluded location in Albuquerque, and then forcibly having sex. A jury convicted Defendant of…
Date: August 4, 2016
Docket Number: 34,826
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2004, defendant Lucas Trammell pled guilty in part, to false imprisonment of a minor victim. At the time, a conviction of false imprisonment of a minor victim required that defendant register as a sex offender under…
Date: June 30, 2016
Docket Number: 34,418
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court addressed whether shooting at or from a motor vehicle could serve as a predicate for felony murder. A jury found Defendant Eric Marquez guilty of first-degree felony murder, and shooting from a motor…
Date: June 30, 2016
Docket Number: 34,866
Justia Opinion Summary: While on routine patrol in San Juan County, New Mexico State Police Officer James Rempe entered the license plate number of the vehicle Defendant Joann Yazzie was driving into his patrol car’s mobile data terminal (MDT).…
Date: June 30, 2016
Docket Numbers: 35,426, 35,438
Justia Opinion Summary: These consolidated appeals presented an issue to the New Mexico Supreme Court on whether farm and ranch laborers' exclusion from coverage under the state Workers' Compensation Act violated the rights of those workers…
Date: June 30, 2016
Docket Number: 35,478
Justia Opinion Summary: The question this case presented for the New Mexico Supreme Court's review centered on whether a mentally-competent-but-terminally-ill patient had a constitutional right to have a willing physician, consistent with…
Date: June 20, 2016
Docket Number: 34,042
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, Guadalupe Ashford’s body was found partially hidden behind a trash can at the edge of a small parking lot. Drag marks and blood spatter indicated that Ashford had initially been assaulted in the lot and then…
Date: June 16, 2016
Docket Number: 34,287
Justia Opinion Summary: The Pueblo of San Felipe (Pueblo) appealed a Court of Appeals decision declining to extend the Pueblo immunity from suit. Hamaatsa, Inc. (Hamaatsa) owned land in Sandoval County. Adjacent to Hamaatsa’s property was land…
Date: June 13, 2016
Docket Number: 34,400
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Edward Armijo was convicted for driving while intoxicated (DWI). The district court affirmed his conviction, but the Court of Appeal reversed. The New Mexico Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the…
Date: June 13, 2016
Docket Number: 34,667
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Muziwokuthula Madonda was interrogated after he was arrested for the deaths of two men in Tucumcari. At the outset, law enforcement officers advised Defendant of his Miranda rights, and he unequivocally invoked…
Date: June 2, 2016
Docket Number: 35,255
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Robert Tufts, a man in his late thirties, filmed himself masturbating, saved the electronic image on a secure digital (SD) memory card, inserted the card into a cell phone, handed the cell phone to a…
Date: June 2, 2016
Docket Number: 35,421
Justia Opinion Summary: On petition for a writ of superintending control, the issue this case presented for the New Mexico Supreme Court's review was an order issued by the Twelfth Judicial District Court in the criminal prosecutions against…
Date: May 23, 2016
Docket Number: 35,248
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 18, AFL-CIO, Locals 1461, 2260 and 2499 (AFSCME), brought a declaratory-judgment action challenging the grandfather status of…
Date: May 19, 2016
Docket Number: 34,873
Justia Opinion Summary: In a certified appeal, the issue this case presented for the New Mexico Supreme Court's consideration was whether the doctrine of fraudulent concealment applied to actions under the Wrongful Death Act (WDA), an issue of…
Date: April 14, 2016
Docket Number: 34,613
Justia Opinion Summary: Phillip Ramirez, a member of the New Mexico Army National Guard, was employed by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD). In July 2005, Ramirez was ordered to federal active duty and deployed to…
Date: March 17, 2016
Docket Numbers: 34,933, 35,036
Justia Opinion Summary: In this opinion the New Mexico Supreme Court addressed two orders issued by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) that affected the revenues of local telephone networks including rural telephone companies…
Date: March 14, 2016
Docket Number: 35,027
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Heather Spurlock, Sophia Carrasco, and Nina Carrera were former inmates of the Camino Nuevo Correctional Center, a prison housing female offenders, directed by Third-Party Defendant Warden Barbara Wagner and…
Date: March 3, 2016
Docket Number: 33,884
Justia Opinion Summary: Environmental contamination from Shell Western Exploration and Production, Inc. and Shell Oil Company's operations was discovered in Hobbs. Residents near the area brought a toxic tort action against Shell for personal…
Date: March 3, 2016
Docket Number: 34,726
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, acting as trustee for Morgan Stanley ABS Capital 1 Inc. Trust 2006-NC4 (Deutsche Bank), filed a complaint seeking foreclosure on Respondent Johnny Johnston's home…
Date: February 25, 2016
Docket Number: 35,145
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, Norman Benally was driving a black Cadillac Escalade with a nonoperating headlight. A police officer stopped Benally, and during the stop, he smelled marijuana. The officer asked for consent to search the…
Date: February 25, 2016
Docket Number: 35,298
Justia Opinion Summary: Anthony Holt had partially removed a window screen from a residential dwelling when he the homeowner detected him. He fled. In the process of removing the screen, he placed his fingers behind the screen and inside the…
Date: February 18, 2016
Docket Number: 33,969
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arises out of a cross-claim for contractual and traditional indemnification. Plaintiffs Briana and Jason Fierro alleged they suffered injuries when a baby changing table collapsed in a Safeway store, and that…
Date: February 15, 2016
Docket Number: 34,504
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Dorall Smith appealed his convictions for first-degree murder and criminal damage to property. Defendant raised ten issues as grounds for appeal: (1) there was insufficient evidence of deliberate intent to…
Date: February 15, 2016
Citation: 2016-NMSC-006
Docket Numbers: 35,426, 35,438
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