Man faces 8 1/2 years for killing brother

Zach Pagett leaves the courtroom on Thursday, March 28, 2013, after being sentenced for the murder of his brother, Neal Pagett, Pagett made his brother dig his own grave and then shot him to death in 2008. (Greg Sorber/Journal)

Faced with no good choices in “the most heartbreaking (and) difficult case I’ve ever had,” 2nd Judicial District Judge Judith Nakamura sentenced a mentally ill 27-year-old to hard prison time Thursday for killing his brother and burying his body in the basement of the family home during a psychotic breakdown in 2008.

Under the sentence imposed, Zach Pagett can expect to spend at least 8 1/2 more years in custody, on top of the five he has spent at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M.

His parents implored the court to impose probation so they could oversee his continued rehabilitation from what was described in court as a diagnosis of schizo-affective disorder, an illness characterized by recurring abnormal mood and psychotic components.

They said the likelihood of his continuing to improve under a structured regimen of medication and counseling while living at home was far more likely than in the vagaries of the state prison system, where meds may be administered intermittently and a premium is placed on cost-saving measures.

Pagett was so delusional at the time he shot his older brother Neal that he described various conspiracies involving movie stars and political figures, including George W. Bush and Bill Richardson, when he turned himself in to authorities at the Metropolitan Detention Center a day after the shooting.

Initially, authorities refused to believe him.

Soon enough, though, it became clear that Zach, then 22, had fired three shots – to his brother’s back, stomach and head – at the family home on Monte Vista SE while his parents were away. Then, he wrapped Neal in a blanket, put him in the basement grave he’d had his brother dig and placed deer antlers atop it.

Pagett was found incompetent to stand trial in 2008 and received a criminal commitment to Las Vegas until he could be treated to competency. That didn’t occur until last July. In September, he entered a plea to second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery with a weapon.

Nakamura inherited the case, which had been assigned to at least three other judges, when she joined district court in January. She told parties at the sentencing hearing that she had studied every item in the file of the troubling case.

She said she understood that the court couldn’t do what so often happens – warehousing the mentally ill in prisons – and that Pagett was “somewhat stable.” But she said his recovery had come about in a secure setting, and that even so some delusions do occur. She told Pagett she knew that he had worked hard to achieve the competency he’d reached. But she also said she was bothered by aspects of the crime – multiple shots and alcohol use beforehand – and that the recidivism rate is higher among defendants in which mental illness is a contributor to the crime.

“Really,” she said, “I’ve gone everywhere” trying to figure out a sentence.

Sheila Pagett, the defendant’s mother, told the judge that Zach, a St. Pius High School wrestler and member of the homecoming court, was “the kid everyone wanted to be around.”

“The first 18 years of his life were amazing,” she said. Although the first hints of what were to come began appearing in his late teens, she said, “I’m a nurse, and I missed it.”

She said he decided to go to California after high school, “and it’s really in those couple of years that he fell apart.”

She said her husband, Ken, had declared that Neal, the deceased brother, “would want us to help Zach.”

“I’m pleading with you, let him go with time served. I want my son back,” she told Nakamura, adding that the death resulted from an illness and not from evil.

Pagett told Nakamura he was quite willing to take medications and undergo counseling.

“I’m not perfect, but I’m 90 percent better,” he said. “I assure you nothing like this will ever happen again.”

Jeff Rein, who represented Pagett for several years before going into private practice, told Nakamura there was no need for punishment and encouraged her not to impose custody.

Pagett’s current lawyer, Marc Gordon, said the family had lost two sons that day in 2008, and said he had learned from his experience with habeas corpus cases that Pagett cannot expect the level of psychiatric care in prison he could have on the outside. Corrections also substitutes generic medications for name brand drugs that may work better, he said.

Deputy District Attorney David Waymire said that, although he’d like to think that Pagett’s years at the state hospital and intensive treatment were sufficient to allow probation, the court would still be taking a chance with community safety.

He suggested a sentence of 15 years for the murder and six, suspended, for aggravated battery, with five years credit for his time in psychiatric hospitalization. That leaves 10 years to be served, and with maximum good time he could be released in 8 1/2 years.

That was what Nakamura imposed, while offering to do anything in her power to ensure he is sent to Los Lunas, where the psychological care was said to be better than elsewhere in the system.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal