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Friday, May 21, 2010
Convicted Killer Seeks Clemency
By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
LAS CRUCES — Having exhausted judicial appeals, a man serving a 20-year sentence for a killing that his identical twin brother claims he carried out has turned to the governor in a bid for clemency.
Albuquerque attorney Eric Hannum filed a petition dated April 28 to Gov. Bill Richardson seeking a full pardon for 31-year-old Joseph Montoya, who has served about 10 1/2 years for the fatal 1999 shooting of a California man in Las Cruces.
Immediately after Montoya's 2000 conviction on second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault, his twin brother Jeremy told the defense attorney that he had fired the shots that killed Robert Williams, a 23-year-old man from Los Angeles.
Since then, in a series of appeals reaching to the state Supreme Court, Joseph Montoya has sought to gain his freedom by arguing that the wrong twin was convicted of Williams' slaying.
The twins testified in a 2005 evidentiary hearing that they committed perjury in the 2000 trial to provide the confessed shooter, Jeremy, an alibi and prevent Joseph's conviction. The clemency petition contains a new admission, by older brother Jason, that he also testified falsely in the same 2000 trial "to provide a phony alibi" for Jeremy, according to his sworn affidavit.
The twins' father, Los Alamos resident Frank Montoya, said the clemency request is "more or less our last solid hope of getting Joseph out."
Jeremy Montoya has said he would plead to the murder charge and serve a sentence.
Joseph Montoya's case was prosecuted by the office of 3rd Judicial District Attorney Susana Martinez, a Republican candidate for governor. Martinez's office has consistently opposed Joseph Montoya's efforts, arguing that the confession did not constitute new evidence that would warrant another trial because it could have been discovered earlier.
Speaking on behalf of Martinez's office Thursday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Susan Riedel also said the twins were not credible because they have admitted lying under oath. Riedel said prosecutors are confident the right twin is behind bars.
"If there was doubt about that, we would be ethically obligated to do something," Riedel said. "There's never been any concern in this office if the right person was convicted in this case."
In a 2005 court hearing in Las Cruces, Jeremy Montoya said he grabbed a gun from older brother Jason's apartment and returned to a party near the New Mexico State University campus, where the twins had been beaten in a fight with a group of other men. There, Jeremy Montoya said, he shot and killed Williams, while Joseph remained at the apartment.
During his two terms in office Richardson has granted 54 pardons but only once, in 2004, commuted a sentence involving a murder conviction. That was for Janet Vigil, who had served nearly 15 years of a life sentence for the murder of her husband. Vigil had no prior criminal history and claimed that she suffered domestic violence prior to the slaying.
Jason Montoya said his participation in the twins' misguided attempt to beat the 2000 case was a "dumb decision" born of immaturity and the desire to protect his brothers.
A father of two who is employed in Santa Fe, Jason Montoya said he has placed himself at risk of perjury charges to tell the truth. "If you put anybody else in my family's situation, and it (Jeremy's confession) wasn't true, they would have folded a long time ago," he said.
"We just want Joe to be free," he added.
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