Zuni man's death penalty case halted; court staff and attorneys work unpaid

The ongoing federal government budget crisis has derailed the prosecution of a Zuni jewelry maker who is facing the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping 11 Native American men, killing two of them.

The government shutdown, entering its third full week, has forced various types of federal court staff, and U.S. marshals, to work without pay beginning this week. However, court hearings and trials appeared to be scheduled as usual in New Mexico.

On Saturday, U.S. District Court Judge David Urias of Albuquerque agreed to delay the death penalty case after defense attorneys for Labar Tsethlikai, 52, contended their client’s constitutional rights were impacted by “the failure of the United States to fund his defense.”

Tsethlikai, who was arrested in April 2024, is in federal custody awaiting trial on federal charges of murder, kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, serious assault and aggravated sexual abuse related to an alleged pattern of predatory and sexual violence.

“We are fearful of providing an inadequate defense and depriving a man of his Constitutional rights in a literal life or death situation,” wrote defense attorney Hadley Brown last week. “The United States is trying to kill Mr. Tsethlikai. They are simultaneously asking the Court to ignore the fact that his Defense is not fully funded.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico asked the judge to deny the defense request for a stay of the proceedings, contending it was merely a tactic to “delay justice.”

Urias wrote in a ruling that “the right to a defense is one of the bedrock principles of this country, and the shutdown has unquestionably impeded Defendant’s right to counsel in this case.”

No trial date had been set in Tsethlikai’s case. He is alleged to have kidnapped and killed at least two men between 2022 to 2024 around New Mexico among his other alleged crimes involving nine others. The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in June its intent to seek the federal death penalty in the case.

As a result, the defense team now includes government-funded attorneys and experts knowledgeable about potential death penalty issues. The lawyers are from the Federal Public Defender’s Office or are private attorneys appointed by the court for indigent defendants under the Criminal Justice Act. This year’s budget issues impact both groups differently.

CJA attorneys haven’t been paid since July 3 of this year when the federal government ran out of funds to compensate those lawyers. In Tsthlikai’s case, some of his defense team, including experts, continued to work on his case “with the idea that they would be paid when the budget was replenished on Oct. 1, 2025,” court records state.

But with the government shutdown, CJA-funded members of his defense team “can no longer continue to work for free or pay expenses out of their own pocket,” stated the defense motion. “As a result of the lack of pay, one essential, now-uncompensated team member has taken money from their retirement accounts to pay their own basic living expenses.” Another team member, described as a specialist, has young children and a family to support and has had to stop most of their work on the death penalty case to focus time on another, paying case, the motion stated.

Meanwhile, federal public defenders as of this week won’t be paid for their work, nor will their experts.

Federal judges are “must-pay” (meaning payment is mandated by existing law independent of annual appropriations) so the district, bankruptcy, magistrate, and circuit judges continue to receive pay during the government shutdown, said Heather Small, chief deputy of the U.S. District Court for New Mexico, in an email.

However, law clerks, paralegals and judicial secretaries are not included in the “must-pay” category, and they are currently working without pay, as is the federal District Clerk’s Office, Probation and Pretrial Services, U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Bankruptcy Clerk’s Office, and Administrative Office of the Courts staff. U.S. marshals staff are also not receiving pay, Small told the Journal.

Asked how the budget crisis is affecting the employees of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, an agency spokeswoman told the Journal in an email on Monday she is unable to respond to press inquiries during the shutdown.

Over 90% of defendants in federal criminal cases have court-appointed counsel because they cannot afford their own lawyer. Nationwide, federal defenders offices handle about 60% of indigent cases. The remaining 40% are CJA attorneys.