{"id":16687,"date":"2017-02-16T23:51:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T23:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16687"},"modified":"2023-10-06T00:15:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T00:15:45","slug":"victims-family-welcomes-grandchild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2017\/02\/16\/victims-family-welcomes-grandchild\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim\u2019s family welcomes grandchild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nWith four-month-old Jaymz Dodge, Allison Gorman\u2019s grandson in the center, family members stand together in loving memory of Allison after an evidentiary hearing last Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BY COLLEEN KEANE<\/strong>
\nSPECIAL TO THE TIMES<\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE<\/strong> \u2014 It has been more than two years since Allison Gorman and Kee Thompson, both Din\u00e9, were brutally beaten to death by three teenagers on the city\u2019s west side during the early morning hours of July 19, 2014.<\/p>\n

For the families, their grief has been constant and immeasurable.<\/p>\n

As testified in front of 2nd District Judge Briana Zamora, they will never again hear the door slam behind them as their loved one calls out, \u201cHey everyone, I\u2019m home!\u201d<\/p>\n

But, a few months ago, the Gormans\u2019 spirits lifted when Jaymz Dodge, Allison\u2019s grandson, was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks like Allison when he was little,\u201d said Alfred Gorman Sr., Allison\u2019s father. With a smile, Gorman raised Jaymz up over his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllison was a rodeo rider, you know. He was always carrying around a saddle getting ready for the next rodeo,\u201d he recalled sadly, missing his son.<\/p>\n

Looking back at Jaymz, he said, \u201cHe\u2019s going to be big and strong, just like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Friday, Allison\u2019s father, mother, and several other members of the Gorman family were once again in Zamora\u2019s courtroom.<\/p>\n

They had thought they were near the end of trials and hearings that have strung out since Alex Rios, then 18; Nathaniel Carrillo, then 16; and Gilbert Tafoya, then 15, were arrested and convicted of the murders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s stressful at these hearings. It brings back all the memories,\u201d said Alberta Gorman Yazzie, Allison\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n

At the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Vincent Martinez, the state prosecutor, asked Judge Zamora to extend the date of Tafoya\u2019s amenability hearing, which was scheduled for Feb. 24.<\/p>\n

An amenability ruling will determine whether Tafoya is amenable to treatment either in a juvenile facility or an institute for children with developmental disabilities or mental disorders.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s judged amenable to treatment, he could be out of institutional care when he turns 21 years old.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s not considered amenable, he could be sentenced to 20 years or more (56 is the max), according to transcripts from Tafoya\u2019s Sept. 16, 2015 court proceedings.<\/p>\n

Martinez asked that the hearing be postponed because his office still hasn\u2019t received information, like evaluation and discipline reports, on Tafoya since he\u2019s been held at the Bernalillo County Youth Services Center, the youth detention center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still in the discovery process,\u201d he advised the court.<\/p>\n

Tafoya is the last of the trio to be sentenced for beating and stabbing Allison and Kee to death as they slept in the empty lot near Tafoya\u2019s home. Surprised by the attack with boards, bricks, and knives, they were unable to defend themselves.<\/p>\n

Tafoya received the amenability hearing as part of the plea deal.<\/p>\n

In the deal, he agreed to plead guilty to two counts of 2nd degree murder, armed robbery, aggravated battery, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.<\/p>\n

He also agreed to testify against his buddies, Rios and Carrillo.<\/p>\n

Talking softly, answering in monosyllables, he made good on his part of the deal during Rios\u2019 jury trial in 2015.<\/p>\n

His testimony, testimony from police investigators, forensic specialists, along with physical evidence, including bloody clothes that were found in Tafoya\u2019s bedroom, resulted in a guilty verdict for Rios and a plea deal for Carrillo.<\/p>\n

Rios was sentenced to 67 years and 6 months.<\/p>\n

Carrillo received 27 and 6 months years, unless he messes up while serving time.<\/p>\n

From a review of legal definitions, courts appear to rule on amenability based on assessments, evaluation reports, the nature and seriousness of the crime, as well as the mental state and behavior of the defendant.<\/p>\n

At the evidentiary hearing last Friday, Martinez gave the court a glimpse of Tafoya\u2019s behavior since he has been detained.<\/p>\n

Playing a video that captured an incident last year on Nov. 7, Martinez called upon two detention center officers as witnesses.<\/p>\n

They confirmed that the playback showed Tafoya strangling another resident. One noted that he recalled the resident had \u201cturned blue\u201d by the time he received backup.<\/p>\n

The senior detention officer testified that there was another incident when a resident ended up with scratches after an altercation with Tafoya.<\/p>\n

Then, he mentioned he had witnessed Tafoya blacking out while seemingly hallucinating.<\/p>\n

\u201cStaring, with his fist clenched,\u201d the officer recalled.<\/p>\n

Tafoya has a B1 classification, the highest level for violence within the facility, according to the officer\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n

Martinez also called Craig Sparks, director of the Bernalillo County Youth Services Center, as a witness.<\/p>\n

Sparks testified that Tafoya has had good days and bad days that included blackouts and hallucinations and several negative incidents, such as \u201cviolence and threats of violence toward staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez also petitioned Zamora to move Tafoya out of the juvenile facility into an adult facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an adult for all purposes, so he needs to be transferred,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With four-month-old Jaymz Dodge, Allison Gorman\u2019s grandson in the center, family members stand together in loving memory of Allison after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16690,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16687\/revisions\/16690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}