Anonymous Gay Male - New Mexico - July 2006

On July 18, 2006, an eighteen-year-old gay male and his female companion were attacked at a party in Edgewood, NM. The gay man was tied up, carried to a field, beaten, slapped, and stomped. The woman was tied up, held in a trailer and beaten, and suffered a broken nose. Their attackers were: Uriah Smith, 16; William York, 21; Leroy Segura, 21; and Cecily Gonzales, 16. Smith later said he had beaten the gay man to “scare him straight.”

Scene of Edgewood, New Mexico attack.

(Note: The names of the victims in this case were withheld for their own safety.)

On Saturday, July, 29, 2006, an 18-year-old gay man, a female friend, another woman, and Uriah Smith, 17, met at a park in Moriarty. The four walked to Smith's house, where yet another woman drove them to a party at a mobile home in Edgewood, with a camper parked in the front yard.

After about an hour, the remaining party goers began to tease the gay male victim because of his orientation, and called the female victim a “whore,” among other names.¹⁾

The gay man and his female friend later told police that when they tried to leave the party, their attackers became verbally abusive.²⁾

According to the search warrant filed in State District Court in Santa Fe, the woman told police that when she and the gay man tried to leave the party, their attackers caught them, knocked them to the ground, and dragged them to a yard containing “several large barking dogs,” and that Smith told them to get ready to be thrown to the dogs. She and the gay man were taken in to the camper. Both were tied up, and Smith said to them “this was a kidnapping and they were not going to die yet.” A female party-goer lifted the woman's head and kicked her in the face, breaking her nose.³⁾

Police said Gonzales, blindfolded the gay man with a torn t-shirt⁴⁾, and led him to Seruga, York, and Smith. The men tied him up, dragged him to a deserted field, dropped him on a downed fence⁵⁾, and beat him with fists and beer bottles, and kicked him. Smith, according to a later pre-sentencing report, said he considered sodomizing the victim with a broom, but worried that the other attackers would think he was gay.⁶⁾

The warrant reads:

“The male subjects would knock (the gay man) down and if he did not get up off of the ground within a certain count or if he would make any noise, they would jump on him, hitting and kicking him.”

“This continued all night until the sun was about to come up.”⁷⁾

State Police Officer Rick Anglada said the gay man was able to get to a phone and call his mother when others left the party and one of the attackers fell asleep. His mother picked him up and took him to the hospital.⁸⁾

The warrant says the men forced the gay man to leave on foot, after taking his glasses and throwing them. The woman eventually got a ride to a Moriarty grocery store and walked home.

Police confiscated a white t-shirt from the mobile home, two bundles of rope from the trailer as well as 2 swabs of blood.⁹⁾

York said to police that Segura told him the gay man had tried to grab York's butt. York said he had not felt a grope, but was upset by what Segura told him.¹⁰⁾

York also said that people at the party were making fun of the gay man because of his sexual orientation, and that “at one point Uriah told him that he wanted to scare (the victim) to make him straight” and “get him to stop acting the way he was.”¹¹⁾

William York, 21

Smith and York were the first arrested. They were charged with kidnapping, aggravated battery causing great bodily injury, false imprisonment, and conspiracy. Police were still seeking Segura as of August 3. Prosecutor Donna Dagnal announced that the three men – Smith, York, and Segura – would be charged under New Mexico's hate crimes law.¹²⁾

Gonzales was arrested on August 5, 2006.¹³⁾ Segura turned himself in at the Santa Fe County Jail on August 7, 2006, to face charges of kidnapping, aggravated battery causing great bodily injury, false imprisonment, and conspiracy.¹⁴⁾

The gay man suffered a concussion, bleeding on the brain, and facial lacerations.¹⁵⁾ His mother later testified that she did not recognize him when she arrived to take him to the hospital. After leaving the hospital, the teasing and harassment he'd already experienced at school worsened to the point that he dropped out. He was later diagnosed with Huntington's Disease, along with his father.¹⁶⁾

Smith, Segura, and York were charged under the state's 2003 hate crimes statute, which allows an additional year of prison time for a bias-related felony.¹⁷⁾

On September 11, 2006, Smith, Segura, and Gonzales entered not guilty pleas to charges of kidnapping, aggravated battery, conspiracy, and false imprisonment. Judge Michael Vigil ordered that Smith and Segura remain in custody in lieu of $100,000 cash bonds. The judge ordered Gonzales held lieu of a $50,000 cash bond.

Probation officer Ellen Russel told Judge Vigil that Smith had been referred to her over 11 times, and was charged with aggravated assault with a handgun in Torrance County. Prosecutor Donna Dagnall said that Smith was released from the state home for boys in March, after completing a two year commitment, and got the assault charges in June.¹⁸⁾

On April 12, 2007, Gonzales pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and false imprisonment. Judge Vigil sentenced her to one year in custody of the Children, Youth, and Families Department. Because she was sentenced as a juvenile, Gonzales was not eligible for the hate-crimes sentencing enhancement of an additional year. ¹⁹⁾

Also on April 12, Judge Vigil sentenced Smith to four years in prison and five additional years if he fails to abide by the terms of his probation. The pre-sentencing evaluation on Smith said that he was not amenable to treatment, believed he did nothing wrong, and wanted to be sent to adult prison. Smith's defense attorney, Stephen Aarons said that Smith was a minor participant in the attack, and never battered the victim, while prosecutor Donna Dagnall said everyone involved identified Smith as the leader of the attack.²⁰⁾ In his statement to police after his arrest, Smith said he egged York and Segura on by yelling homophobic slurs in Spanish.²¹⁾

Aarons said Smith suffered multiple personality disorders, had problems with self confidence, and often burned himself on his arms, legs, and torso. On the day of the beating Aarons said that Smith had wires removed from his jaw, which had been broken in an earlier fight.²²⁾

In May 2007, York and Segura pleaded guilty to aggravated battery, false imprisonment, and conspiracy.²³⁾ On July 25, 2007, Judge Vigil gave York and Segura – who had been in jail since August 2006 – four year suspended sentences with credit for time served, and five years of supervised probation.²⁴⁾