Stabbing case still wounds mother

	Know your rights N.M. Victims’ Rights Project: www.nm-victimsrights.org NIA/NM’s Resource Center for Victims of Violent Death: www.bridgesforvictimsofviolentdeath.org A Cry for Help Inc.: www.acryforhelpinc.org

Dario Fabian Mirabal, 28, was thinner, paler, older than she recalled when she watched him give a less polished speech to the court at his original sentencing in March 2009. A jury had convicted him of second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery for plunging a knife 5 inches deep into Joshua Bean’s chest, stabbing his back, his abdomen, his forearm, slashing his cheek, stabbing Joshua’s two friends and then saying he had done so in self-defense.

The attack, described by prosecutor Judith Faviell as a massacre, occurred March 1, 2007, hours after Joshua had celebrated the first birthday of his son, Mekhi, with family at a Peter Piper Pizza.

If only the night had ended there.

Instead, Joshua, an 18-year-old basketball standout at West Mesa High School, joined friends Paul Dickens and Lamar Lewis at a second-floor unit of an apartment complex.

A shouting match ensued on an outside balcony with three men from Mirabal’s third-floor apartment.

Lois Bean leafs through her wallet in search of a photo of her son, Joshua Bean, as she waits Thursday for the sentencing hearing of the man convicted of stabbing her son to death in 2007. On her lap are memorial T-shirts for her son. (Joline Gutierrez Kruger/Journal)

Why the fight started, why it escalated beyond words, has been attributed to everything from a request for a cigarette to the utterance of a racial slur. In any case, it did not involve alcohol, drugs or logic, but false bravado, foolishness and testosterone.

It had been a brawl of fists and feet and no weapons. Mirabal, also a young father, told police it was as if he were being attacked by a swarm of bees.

And then he got the knife.

Mirabal, testifying at his own trial in February 2009, said he lashed out in self-defense, not just in defense of himself, but of his friends Joseph Flores and David Gabaldon.

Jurors didn’t buy it.

So, Lois Bean watched the court process play out, watched Mirabal beg for mercy, watched as mercy was denied and as he received the maximum sentence of 21 years.

She thought it was all over then, save for the pain of losing her only son.

That would never be over.

But here she was again last Thursday, this time in the courtroom of state District Judge Benjamin Chavez, for Mirabal’s second crack at sentencing.

This time, she felt the justice system had forgotten her.

“I’m out in the cold,” she said.

Bean, a soft-spoken woman, said she never knew Mirabal had appealed his case and won, the judges agreeing that jurors should have been given a jury instruction not just on self-defense but “defense of another.”

The appeal meant Mirabal was entitled to a new trial.

Instead, prosecutors offered Mirabal a deal – Bean contends without her knowledge – that dropped the second-degree murder charge to voluntary manslaughter, which carries a sentence of six years.

The plea called for Mirabal to keep the two aggravated battery charges, which carry three-year sentences, in addition to the voluntary manslaughter charge.

Mirabal, described as a model prisoner since his arrest on the night of the deadly fight, had already served six years.

Which meant that, last Thursday, had the judge ordered Mirabal to serve his manslaughter sentence concurrently with his battery sentences, he could have almost been a free man.

“I think he should have gotten life in prison for taking my son’s life,” Bean said. “I think at least he should serve the 21 years he was given. I think I should be allowed to appeal. But we don’t get that.”

By Thursday, Bean had yet to receive a copy of the plea agreement as prosecutor Faviell had promised.

“Just another broken promise,” Bean said. “I thought we were going to trial. She did what she wanted to do. There was no meeting, nothing at all. She didn’t care about my feelings.”

At court Thursday, feelings were icy between Faviell and Bean and her supporters.

Faviell issued a pre-emptive rebuttal to the judge, saying her office had always been in contact with Bean and that Faviell herself and a victim advocate from the office had met with Bean on Aug. 28 specifically to address the plea.

There had also been a hearing in February 2012, at which both sides were present, when the plea deal was first made public.

“I understand the victim’s family are very emotional,” Faviell told the court on Thursday.

There’s a difference between talking at somebody and talking to somebody, and Bean said she was afforded neither.

“When I hear from victims with similar situations as Lois’, I keep wondering when the judicial system will treat victims as human beings,” said Linda Atkinson, executive director of the New Mexico Victims’ Rights Project. “Talk with them, listen to them, let them speak at the hearings, let them know their constitutional rights, etc.”

Under the state statute, victims and their families have the right to be notified of court proceedings, confer with the prosecution and be provided information about the conviction, sentencing, imprisonment, escape or release of the accused.

As it turns out, Judge Chavez on Thursday sentenced Mirabal to 12 years, opting to have the six-year manslaughter sentence run consecutively to the battery sentences. Which means Mirabal could be free while he is still in his early 30s.

Which for Bean and those who knew and loved Joshua, is next to nothing.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal