Quote:The youngest of three youths convicted in the beating deaths of two homeless men was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison, bringing to a close a 2014 case that made national headlines for its staggering brutality.

Gilbert Tafoya was just 15 when he and two friends used makeshift weapons they found – a table leg, a cinder block and tree branches – to pummel two homeless men who were sleeping on a discarded mattress in an empty West Central lot. After the assault, the teens retrieved kitchen knives and returned to stab Allison Gorman, 44, and Kee Thompson, 45, who were both Navajo.

A third man, who was able to escape the attack, later told police that the group was known for beating homeless people and, according to police, Tafoya said he and his friends had done so dozens of times before.

In a brief statement to the court and the victims’ families, Tafoya said he knew what he had done and would not let it happen again.

“Three years ago, I made a very bad choice, and it weighs heavily on me every day. I can’t even say how sorry I am,” Tafoya said. “I would ask for forgiveness, but I can’t even forgive myself.”

Before announcing the sentence, 2nd Judicial District Judge Briana Zamora said the “degree of brutality in this case is unprecedented.” In October, she ruled that Tafoya, now 19, would be sentenced as an adult.

During the hearing Thursday, Gorman’s sister described seeing her brother’s body.

“I felt so numb when I saw him lying in the casket, thinking this is not my brother, my brother was so handsome and strong,” Gorman’s sister told the court. “How can I confirm that this is really him? The man laying in front of me looks like a monster.”

Gorman was a cowboy, a handyman, a farmer, she said.

But the attack left his face unrecognizable, police said.

And Thompson’s sister said the news that her brother had suffered such pain was devastating.

“No one should have to die such a cruel and hideous death,” she said.

Tafoya’s 20-year sentence is the lightest in the case, and it was specified in a September 2015 plea deal that required him to testify as a state’s witness. But Tafoya was eligible for an amenability hearing during which Zamora would consider whether Tafoya should be sentenced as a juvenile or an adult. If he had been sentenced as a juvenile, he could have remained in custody only until age 21.

During an amenability hearing, a neuropsychologist testified that Tafoya grew up in an emotionally neglectful home and was not properly supervised by his parents.

Still to come is a restitution hearing, though a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that would not take place until Tafoya is released after serving his sentence.

Nathaniel Carillo, 16 at the time of the attacks, is serving a 26½-year prison sentence for his murder convictions. Alex Rios, 18 at the time of the beatings, was sentenced to 67½ years in prison after a jury in 2015 found him guilty of second-degree murder and 21 more charges.

(12-15-2017 01:38 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  I still think the sentences were too light. They killed innocent people. People that were down on their luck and deserved a break and not a death sentence.

(12-15-2017 04:26 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

(12-15-2017 01:38 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  I still think the sentences were too light. They killed innocent people. People that were down on their luck and deserved a break and not a death sentence.

Agree