Court Digest

New Mexico
High court reverses ruling that overturned murder conviction on speedy trial violations
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court has upheld a man’s murder conviction, overruling a state Court of Appeals decision that found his constitutional right to a speedy trial had been violated.

Jeremiah Gurule waited nearly six years in jail before a jury convicted him in 2016 of murder and evidence tampering in the stabbing death of his girlfriend, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

But the state’s high court ruled 3-2 Thursday that Gurule’s speedy trial rights weren’t violated because the circumstances involved lengthy considerations of his mental competence to stand trial.

Gurule, 36, was convicted by a 2nd Judicial District Court jury of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the April 2010 stabbing death of 22-year-old University of New Mexico student Elizabeth Brito.

According to the Journal, witnesses testified that Gurule had been smoking methamphetamine before he stabbed Brito 26 times in the neck while she was on the phone with a 911 operator.

In 2019, the New Mexico Court of Appeals reversed Gurule’s conviction in a split decision — remanding the case to District Court with instructions to dismiss the charges.

The appellate court ruled that the 70-month delay in the trial weighted heavily against state prosecutors and that Gurule’s constitutional rights to a speedy trial were violated.

“The Court of Appeals erred in weighting that delay against the State,” Supreme Court Justice David Thomson wrote for the three-member majority. “Instead, we weigh the reasons for the delay in large part against (Gurule) because much of the delay was the result of multiple considerations of (Gurule’s) competence to stand trial.”

Thomson also said the state Supreme Court has previously ruled that delays resulting from competency considerations do not affect the defendant’s right to a speedy trial.

The New Mexico Correction Department told the Journal that Gurule has a projected release date of November 2025, but that timetable is “subject to change, based on his conduct.”

Indiana
Police officers acquitted of excessive force in protesters’ arrests
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two Indianapolis police officers were acquitted early Saturday of using excessive force to strike two women with batons during arrests at a May 2020 protest against racial injustice and police brutality.

Officers Jonathan Horlock and Nathaniel Schauwecker had been charged with battery and official misconduct in the case. They were among officers ordered to arrest people gathered at a downtown Indianapolis intersection in violation of an 8 p.m. curfew.

After more than 10 hours of deliberation, the jury found the officers not guilty of four of the charges they faced. The jury could not reach verdicts on one charge of battery and one charge of official misconduct, local news outlets reported.

Prosecutors argued the officers did not respond in a reasonable way to actions by the two women, Ivore Westfield and Rachel Harding. The arrests reportedly left the women with multiple bruises and sore areas.

However, the officer’s attorney, John Kautzman, said the men did what they are trained to do. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has said the officers followed policy in their use of force.

The episode followed several days of Black Lives Matter protests occurring downtown after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Neither woman was charged with a crime. They have filed a federal lawsuit against Horlock, Schauwecker and two other officers that is pending.

Horlock and Schauwecker have been on administrative leave since the episode.

South Carolina
Jury convicts inmate in first trial involving deadly prison riots
BISHOPVILLE, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina jurors have found an inmate guilty of charges connected to the death of a fellow inmate during the deadliest U.S. prison riot of the past quarter-century.

The Lee County jury deliberated less than an hour on Friday before finding Michael Juan “Flame” Smith guilty of assault and battery by mob, weapon possession and conspiracy for his role in the 2018 violence. Trial Judge Ferrell Cothran Jr. gave Smith a 45-year sentence, although one five-year term issued will run concurrently with the other time, news outlets reported.

Seven prisoners were killed and 22 seriously injured in the riot at the maximum-security Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Columbia. One inmate described bodies “literally stacked on top of each other, like some macabre woodpile.”

Dozens of inmates have been indicted on charges related to the riots that occurred across three dormitories, and a string of defendants began pleading guilty over the summer. But Smith was the first prisoner whose case went to trial, according to the news outlets. Within four days he was convicted of the charges related to the death of 33-year-old Cornelius McClary.

“This sends a message that the people of Lee County and Department of Corrections aren’t going to put up with this kind of activity,” said Barney Giese, a former prosecutor retained by the Corrections Department to help prosecute the riot cases.

In the trial testimony that focused largely on one dormitory, witnesses painted a picture of chaos inside the prison and injured and dead inmates that stemmed from a brawl between rival gangs on April 15, 2018.

Jurors watched video clips that showed the assault of McClary. Prosecutors said Smith was among Blood gang members that chased McClary, who was trying to get away. A pathologist who was a prosecution witness testified that McClary had been stabbed 101 times. Giese said the videos showed Smith pushing through a crowd of fellow Bloods to follow McClary, a Crips gang member who had fallen down a staircase, and stab and hit him.

Another prosecutor, Margaret Scott, said it was a case of “the hunter and the hunted ... predator and prey,” and that McClary was the prey.

Smith, 31, who took the stand Thursday, told the jury he stabbed McClary to death in self-defense. His defense attorney, Aimee Zmroczek, emphasized to jurors Smith’s testimony that he had been in fear of his life during the hourslong riot, and that a friend of his had been stabbed to death earlier that night in another dormitory.

Zmroczek also criticized the state Department of Corrections for failing to keep inmates in a safe and secure environment. Corrections officials have blamed the orchestrated violence in part on illegal cellphones behind bars.

Corrections Department Director Bryan Stirling said after Friday’s verdict that inmate safety has improved at Lee Correctional Institution and more upgrades are coming. When the riot occurred, all 1,000 inmates at the prison were classified as maximum security, but now only 30% have that status, he said, with the remainder as medium security.

Smith was imprisoned at the time of the riot after being convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of a University of South Carolina student. That convicted was overturned by the state Supreme Court three years ago. He’s been held since then at a Columbia detention center.

California
Law clerk passes state bar at age 17 and is sworn in as an attorney
VISALIA, Calif. (AP) — A county prosecutor’s office says one of its law clerks passed the State Bar of California exam at age 17.

The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office said this week that, according to research, Peter Park is the youngest person to pass the exam.

The State Bar said Friday in an email to The Associated Press that it could not confirm that Park is the youngest, but it hailed his achievement.

“Passing the California Bar exam is a major accomplishment at any age, and for someone as young as Mr. Park, it is quite an extraordinary feat and one worth celebrating,” Executive Director Leah Wilson said.

Park took the exam in July and received the test results on Nov. 9, according to a news release issued by the District Attorney’s office this week.

“It was not easy, but it was worth it,” Park said in a statement.

Park began high school at Oxford Academy in Cypress, California, in 2019 at age 13 and simultaneously began a four-year juris doctor program at the Northwestern California University School of Law after completing college-level proficiency exams, the office said.

Park graduated high school in 2021 by taking the state’s high school proficiency exam and focused on law school, graduating this year. He became a law clerk for the District Attorney’s office in August, turned 18 in late November and was sworn in as an attorney on Tuesday.

Nevada
Man who killed bystander in gang shootout gets up to 40 years
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison for killing an innocent bystander and injuring another in a barrage of gunfire during a shootout with a rival gang at a Reno gas station.

Kamahri Berreman of Reno, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with the use of deadly weapon, will be eligible for parole after 15 years, the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Friday.
Prosecutors arguing for life in prison described the March 2022 attack as a “deadly ambush” in retaliation for a shooting that night at a house party.

Deputy District Attorney Jeff Hoppe said in Friday’s statement that Berreman admitted he “emptied his gun” as he and two fellow gang members started shooting at rivals parked at a convenience store gas pump.

Elizaer Obed, 28, was struck and killed by a bullet. The other bystander, a woman, was shot in the shoulder but recovered at a hospital, the DA’s office said.

Police arrested Berreman the day after the shooting. Prosecutors said he supplied automatic firearms to fellow gang members in an ongoing feud and retaliatory shootings.