STORY: "The state Supreme Court overturned a Taos woman’s murder conviction on Thursday citing “outrageous prosecutorial misconduct,” including a prosecutor for the 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office referring to the defendant as a witch.
In 2022, Desiree Lensegrav was sentenced to 45 years in prison with the possibility of parole for helping to kidnap and murder Ranchos de Taos resident Joseph Morgas in 2019. However, New Mexico’s highest court concluded Lensegrav didn’t receive a fair trial and prohibited a retrial, citing state constitutional protections of double jeopardy.
“In this case of severe and pervasive prosecutorial misconduct, exacerbated by a lackluster defense, we hold that an Assistant District Attorney who uses opening statements to expose the jury to incriminating allegations from a non-testifying codefendant, repeatedly accuses a defendant of witchcraft, and relies on inflammatory and inadmissible evidence throughout the case, has knowingly committed misconduct so unfairly prejudicial and with such willful disregard for reversal on appeal that retrial is barred under ... the New Mexico Constitution,” the court wrote in an opinion by Justice Michael E. Vigil.
Lensegrav was convicted and sentenced for first-degree murder, kidnapping, evidence tampering and conspiracy to commit murder. Lensegrav’s husband, Aram Montoya, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping in 2021. He received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
According to court records, Lensegrav and her husband confessed to killing Morgas following a 2020 domestic violence incident in which Montoya stabbed Lensegrav.
“[Lensegrav] was taken to a hospital and later described to police how Montoya killed Morgas during a fight,” according to Thursday’s news release from the state Administrative Office of the Courts. “The victim’s body was taken to another location where it was burned, decapitated and buried. The head was thrown into the Rio Grande. Lensegrav told police that she wanted Montoya to hurt Morgas after he insulted her at a drug house and threatened actions so she would lose custody of her child.”
The prosecution canceled plans to call Montoya as a witness shortly before Lensegrav’s trial in 2022, but the court wrote Assistant District Attorney Cosme Ripol “nevertheless used his opening statement to expose the jury to Mr. Montoya’s incriminating allegations against Defendant.”
“Bolstered with copious amounts of other inflammatory and inadmissible evidence, including allegations that Defendant was a ‘witch’ and a ‘bruja’ ... who controlled Mr. Montoya through her menstrual blood, ADA Ripol embarked on a three-day-long exercise in pathos and character assassination that utterly deprived Defendant of a fair trial that is guaranteed by the New Mexico Constitution,” the court wrote.
The court found it “profoundly troubling” that Lensegrav’s defense counsel didn’t object to the majority of instances involving prosecutorial misconduct during the trial. The court also noted the prosecution introduced “foul-smelling physical evidence” from the victim’s remains and the smell led the judge to adjourn the trial early during the second day. Ripol urged the jury in his closing statement to find Lensegrav guilty for the “stench of death that permeated this courtroom,” the opinion says.
“The entire trial was filled with theatrics, hyperbole and disparaging inflammatory statements, such that the extent of the misconduct cannot be fully conveyed in this opinion,” the Court wrote.
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/new-mexico-supreme-court-overturns-murder-conviction-of-woman-prosecutor-called-a-witch/article_eca196cc-f004-11ef-820d-c368a15ac965.htmlPUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
