What became of the 5 death row inmates

Five inmates were sitting on death row in 1986 when then-Gov. Toney Anaya surprised them and the rest of the state by commuting their death sentences to life sentences.

That decision, made at the very end of Anaya’s term, has had dramatic consequences for the perpetrators, victims and families of both.

According to a State Parole Board spokeswoman, here’s where the convicted murderers are now:

• William Wayne Gilbert, convicted of murdering four people, died of liver complications in 2002. About a year after Anaya’s decision, he escaped from prison with a group of other inmates, abducted and terrorized a family in Arizona and was captured in California.
• Ricky Reynaldo Garcia has not yet started serving the life sentences that Anaya commuted. Before he can begin those sentences, levied after killing an inmate and a corrections officer at the Santa Fe state penitentiary in 1981, he’ll need to be paroled from an “indeterminate” sentence of 15-55 years on aggravated battery charges. His parole for those sentences is considered every year.
• Eddie Lee Adams, who robbed, raped and killed an elderly Clovis woman in 1981, was paroled from prior sentences in 1999 and began serving the murder sentence. That means he will be eligible for parole on his murder conviction in March 2029.
• Joel Lee Compton, who fatally shot Albuquerque police officer Gerald Cline in 1983, will come up for his first parole hearing March 6.
• Michael Guzman was convicted in 1981 of raping two UNM students, killing one and badly injuring the other. He became the first of the former death row inmates to come up for parole in April 2011, but was denied release.

Additionally, 367 inmates currently serving life sentences at state prisons were sentenced after 1980, according to the New Mexico Corrections Department. Each of those inmates will have the possibility of parole after 30 years in prison at two-year intervals.
— This article appeared on page A8 of the Albuquerque Journal