Two of the three men convicted in February of killing Mexican national Juan Alcantar were sentenced to life in prison on Monday, The Taos News reported.

Steve Tollardo, 32, and Lawrence Gallegos, 27, were found guilty in separate trials in February in the drugging, beating and burning death of Alcantar in 2003, the News reported.

Scheduling conflicts forced the postponement of sentencing of Luis "Tablas" Trujillo, 35, the third man found guilty in February, according to the paper.

Tollardo was sentenced to life -- in New Mexico, 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole -- plus nine years for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, the News reported.

State District Judge Eugenio Mathis sentenced Gallegos to life plus 21 years for murder, aggravated arson, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to commit aggravated arson, the paper said.

Alcantar, a 22-year-old Mexican national living in Questa, was found in a Taos church parking lot on the morning of Sept. 7, 2003 after he had been beaten, burned and injected with a lethal dose of heroin, according to earlier reports.

A fourth defendant who went on trial in February, 55-year-old Elias Romero, was acquitted of charges for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, the Albuquerque Journal reported at the time. 

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