Jurors return second-degree murder verdict in 2023 shooting death

A jury on Friday found Chase Cuffie guilty of second-degree murder for emerging from a storage closet at his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and fatally shooting a man who tried to flee the residence in 2023.

But jurors rejected the most serious charge of first-degree murder after deliberating about six hours.

Cuffie, 40, also was convicted of three counts of aggravated battery in the attack that resulted in the death of 28-year-old Craig Lee Dixon of Albuquerque.

Cuffie faces a maximum sentence of about 33 years in prison at a later sentencing hearing. The verdict followed a weeklong trial in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque before Judge Brett Loveless.

Prosecutors argued that Cuffie had “an obsession” with his ex-girlfriend, Dominique Navarro, and went to her Northwest Albuquerque apartment to kill her on April 15, 2023.

Instead, Cuffie fired about eight gunshots at Dixon, a friend of Navarro’s, as he tried to dash out of the woman’s apartment, Assistant District Attorney Ashlee Mills said Friday in closing arguments.

“That intent that he had to kill Dominique (Navarro) transfers to Craig Dixon,” Mills told jurors. Dixon was struck by multiple gunshots and was found by police lying in Navarro’s living room at the West Park Apartments near Paradise and Eagle Ranch NW.

Dixon, a father of two, graduated from Atrisco Heritage High School, where he played varsity basketball, according to his obituary on the Strong-Thorne Mortuary website.

Cuffie’s attorney, Stephanie Gulley, said in closing arguments Friday that someone other than Cuffie fired the fatal gunshots.

The gunman had a shirt wrapped around his head, but police identified him as Cuffie based on the word of Navarro and a second woman at the scene. Police immediately narrowed their investigation to Cuffie, Gulley argued.

“I’ve never seen such a tunnel vision investigation,” Gulley told jurors. “It was a focused investigation from five minutes in.”

Court records show that Cuffie had stalked Navarro for more than a year prior to Dixon’s killing.

Cuffie pleaded guilty in July 2022 to violating a restraining order obtained by Navarro, according to Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court records. Cuffie was sentenced by Metro Court Judge Linda Rogers to a year of supervised probation.

In May 2023, just two months before Dixon’s killing, a warrant was issued for Cuffie’s arrest for again violating the restraining order, court records show. A judge reinstated Cuffie’s probation and ordered him to have no contact with Navarro.

Prosecutors showed jurors dozens of text messages sent to Navarro from Cuffie’s phone in the hours before the killing, essentially pleading with Navarro to return to him.

Prosecutors told jurors that on July 15, 2023, Cuffie drove to Navarro’s apartment and hid in a storage room off the patio for about 20 minutes, listening to Dixon, Navarro and a second woman talking.

Navarro testified this week that Cuffie stepped out of the closet with a shirt wrapped around his head and ordered the three inside the apartment. Cuffie pointed the gun at Navarro’s head as she begged for her life, she testified.

Mills said Cuffie had planned to kill Navarro but turned his “tunnel vision” to Dixon when he tried to flee the apartment.

“This wasn’t just spontaneous,” Mills told jurors. “He wasn’t just randomly waiting on the patio for 15 to 20 minutes. He didn’t just randomly jump out of the closet with his gun in hand and tell them to get into the apartment.”