But she said what hurts the most is that her 18-month-old son, Jaimz, won\u2019t be able to get to know his grandpa.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have been the greatest grandpa to my son,\u201d she said. \u201cHe probably would have wanted to teach my son how to be a cowboy and a steer wrestler just like him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can ask for is for this boy to pay as much time as he can in prison for taking my dad away from us,\u201d lamented Ashley Gorman.<\/p>\n
Her voice breaking, Veda Yazzie, Kee Thompson\u2019s older sister, told Zamora that she helped raise Kee.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was both a son and a brother,\u201d she said, adding that he was a special education student.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew his limitations, but he wanted to be independent,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
Also asking Zamora to hand down a maximum sentence, Yazzie asked, \u201cWhy did he have to die such a cruelly heinous death? Our entire family mourns the loss of Kee. He was precious. The three young men who savagely took Kee\u2019s life must never do this again to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since hearing about their brutal murders, family members have sent Zamora numerous letters and photographs of Thompson and Gorman, which Zamora related she took into consideration in sentencing Tafoya.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did review all the letters describing the victims and what amazing people they were,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took heart when I read Ms. Yazzie\u2019s statement. I made a note of what she stated was so true: The two victims should not have died in such a cruel and hideous manner. I think that is exactly right. I think the degree of brutality in this case is unprecedented. I personally have not seen anything like it, and I\u2019ve seen quite a bit,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Zamora expressed sympathy to the family members for the violence that took the lives of their loved ones.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Denetdale, chair of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, stated in her address to the court, \u201cThe sentence handed down by your honor will never be just or answer for the horror of the crimes against Allison Gorman and Kee Thompson, and their families. What the court is allowed to sentence this man, Gilbert Tafoya, is no way any measure of what he deserves and a measure of justice that he should face by the state of New Mexico and this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denetdale noted that the murders were violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, \u201cNo one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
A seasoned police investigator who discovered Thompson\u2019s and Gorman\u2019s bludgeoned bodies the morning of July 19, 2014, was shocked at the brutality of the murders. He said it was the worst murder he had ever seen.<\/p>\n
Hispanic teenagers Tafoya, then 15; Alex Rios, then 18; and Nathaniel Carrillo, then 16, were convicted of their murders and the beating of a third Din\u00e9 man, Jerome Eskeets, who managed to get away and call police.<\/p>\n
The trio attacked the defenseless men they found sleeping in an empty lot with a metal pole, concrete blocks and tree branches, then went back to Tafoya\u2019s nearby home to get knives \u201cto make sure they were dead,\u2019\u2019 according to court testimony.<\/p>\n
Rios is serving 67 ? years; Carrillo, who took a plea bargain, 26 ? years.<\/p>\n
Both in their 40s, Gorman was from Shiprock and Thompson from Church Rock, New Mexico.<\/p>\n
In the plea agreement, Tafoya agreed to plead guilty and testify against his buddies in exchange for an amenability hearing, which would determine whether he was amenable to treatment as a juvenile.<\/p>\n
In October, Zamora ruled that Tafoya wasn\u2019t amenable to treatment, which set the adult sentencing hearing into motion.<\/p>\n
If he had been judged amenable to rehabilitation, he could have been out of a juvenile center when he was 21.<\/p>\n
Zamora based her non-amenable ruling in part on several days of hearings last summer with testimony from expert witnesses and probation staff.<\/p>\n
Speaking for the defense, psychologist Maxann Shwartz recommended treatment.<\/p>\n
Shwartz pointed out that he demonstrated good behavior while detained in the Bernalillo County Youth Services Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe received several merit awards,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt he was getting better. I saw improvement. I saw him change with my own eyes. He\u2019s more introspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
But psychologist Dusty Humes, testifying on behalf of the state prosecution, strongly disagreed with an amenability ruling.<\/p>\n
She predicted that Tafoya\u2019s risk for future violence was \u201cmoderate to high.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thinks of violence as a way to solve problems,\u201d she testified.<\/p>\n
Probation Officer Simon Manzanares agreed with Humes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community deserves to be safe,\u201d he testified.<\/p>\n
According to a city survey of people living on the streets released the summer Thompson and Gorman were brutally murdered, Native Americans were found to be more vulnerable to violence than others.<\/p>\n
At community rallies, several advocates called for the murders to be considered hate crimes and for the construction of a Native American shelter and rehab center to ensure that there\u2019s a safety net with culturally relevant services.<\/p>\n
A call to incoming Mayor Tim Keller asking whether he would support a Native American shelter wasn\u2019t returned before deadline.<\/p>\n
Several other recommendations were made by a Native American Homelessness Task Force created by former Mayor Richard Berry.<\/p>\n
A 2016 homelessness study identified hundreds of tribal members living on the streets of Albuquerque.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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