Double murder conviction of AZ Boys leader Robert Chavez upheld by NM Supreme Court
On April 8 the New Mexico Supreme Court issued an opinion upholding the conviction of AZ Boys gang leader Robert Chavez for two counts of first-degree murder.
Chavez was convicted in 2019 in the 2009 killings of Maximiliano Griego and Griego's girlfriend Mary Hudson Gutierrez in Alamogordo. Chavez, investigators said, was the leader of a drug trafficking operation that stretched from Arizona to New Mexico.
Investigators said Griego's death was the result of drug "territory" dispute and was carried out with the help of Chavez's brother Joe Chavez and in the presence of his nephew Joey Chavez.
In his appeal, Chavez said that the testimony of his nephew, who was 15-years-old at the time of the crime, was uncorroborated, an argument the justices rejected. Chavez, in his appeal, also argued that the district court erred in allow the testimony of a law enforcement officer regarding a witness statement and hearsay testimony. In response, the Supreme Court wrote in a unanimous opinion "the district court did not abuse its discretion in making either of the evidentiary rulings challenged by Defendant."
Chavez was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the killings. He is also serving 26 years for drug trafficking plus a 21 year sentence for an unrelated murder.
Confession of accomplice reopens cold case
The Griego and Hudson Gutierrez murders had gone cold for a decade, until Joey Chavez agreed to provide testimony in exchange for a shorter sentence in an unrelated felony case.
According to court documents, the Chavez brothers lured Griego to a home in Alamogordo where they beat him and bound him with zip ties. The two men, with the help of their nephew, then transported him the trunk of a car to the Hudson Gutierrez's home.
Hudson Gutierrez's then 15-year-old daughter, awoken by gunshots, found both Griego and Hudson Gutierrez with gunshot wounds to the head inside a bedroom in the home.
AZ Boys gang members convicted in other murders
This is the second time the state Supreme Court upheld a conviction against Chavez. In 2021 justices found that there was no error in a district court judge's decision to allow Chavez to be tried alongside Matias Loza for the murder of Richard Valdez.
Chavez, Loza and other members of the AZ Boys killed Valdez, put his body in a car and set the car on fire, court records state. Valdez, too, was beaten before being shot.
Loza pleaded guilty to the murder and other charges in 2019. The state Supreme Court ruled in an appeal by Loza that prosecution for Valdez murder did not constitute double jeopardy as evidence in that case was used against Loza on a racketeering charge.
Joe Chavez pleaded guilty in 2009 to the double murder of Griego and Hudson Gutierrez. In 2017 he pleaded guilty to his role in the killing of Valdez.
The AZ Boys gang was suspected of meth trafficking, murder, money laundering, arson and attempted bribery of law enforcement.
Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on twitter at @Juan36Corr.
This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: NM Supreme Court rejects appeal by AZ Boy Robert Chavez in murders
