New Mexico Supreme Court invalidates felony murder conviction of Las Cruces man

The state Supreme Court vacated the first-degree felony murder conviction of a Las Cruces man for a shooting death at a house party in 2021.

But Mawu Ekon Revels could potentially face another trial, according to a news release. A jury convicted Revels of killing Nicodemus Gonzales when he and another man allegedly fired multiple times into a group of people during a fight at the house party. Bullets also hit the car of a young woman who was driving away from the area, according to the news release. In addition to felony murder, Revels was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at or from a motor vehicle, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and conspiracy to commit shooting at or from a motor vehicle, according to the release. He was 17 years old at the time of the fatal shooting.

The New Mexico Supreme Court concluded on Monday, April 7, in a unanimous opinion that aggravated assault cannot serve as the underlying felony to elevate a homicide to a charge of felony murder which is what happened to Revels, according to the news release.

“Defendant’s conviction for felony murder is legally invalid because it is based on the predicate felony of aggravated assault. Therefore, we vacate that conviction as a nonexistent crime,” the Court wrote in an opinion by Justice C. Shannon Bacon.

The Court vacated one of the conspiracy convictions, explaining there was not enough evidence to prove more than one conspiracy by the young men in pulling out their weapons and shooting, the press release states. The justices also concluded Revels improperly received a four-year sentence enhancement because a firearm was used in the crimes. The law imposes a one-year firearm enhancement for juvenile defendants like Revels who are charged with first-degree murder, according to the news release.

The Court ordered the case back to the district court in Doña Ana County for resentencing and further proceedings. Revels can be retried on felony murder or a lesser included offense, such as second-degree murder, the Court explained. Double jeopardy protections prohibit a retrial for willful, deliberate first-degree murder because the jury acquitted him of that charge, according to the release.

New Mexico law provides for different types of murder in the first degree, all of which are punishable by life in prison. Felony murder is a second-degree murder elevated to first-degree murder when the killing occurs in the commission of a felony or attempt to commit a felony, according to the news release.

In vacating the murder charge, the Court explained that New Mexico law requires the underlying felony for a charge of felony murder to be independent of or collateral to the homicide. Aggravated assault cannot serve as the basis for felony murder because it is not possible to commit second-degree murder without also committing some form of aggravated assault, the Court noted.

Double jeopardy protections do not preclude retrying Revels because the reversal of his felony murder conviction as a nonexistent crime was a reversal for a trial error and not an acquittal, the Court wrote.

 “At bottom, a conviction for a nonexistent crime is a charging defect,” the Court said, according to the news release.

The justices also explained that the reversal of the felony murder conviction does not warrant remanding the case to the trial court for sentencing on second-degree murder. The Court provided guidance to lower courts on applying what is known as the “direct-remand rule,” which “applies only to cases that are reversed on appeal for insufficient evidence – in other words, cases where the defendant has been acquitted – and its application depends on the evidence and the jury instructions given in each case.” That rule does not apply to Revels because a trial error caused the reversal in his case, according to the news release.