The New Mexico Supreme Court has upheld a man’s murder conviction in the 2018 shooting deaths of three people near the community of Dixon.
The state high court concluded in a unanimous decision Monday that there was sufficient evidence to support John Powell’s 2020 convictions of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated robbery.
The body of April Brown (42). Abraham Martinez, 36 years old. and Keelin Gilmin, 27, were found at his home in Rio Arriba County, a few miles from Dixon.
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Authorities said surveillance cameras recorded the murder of Brown and the theft of a safe and other items from his home by Powell and his brother Roger Gage.
Mr. Gage was convicted separately in this case and sentenced to life in prison.
The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction of John Powell.
Last year, the state Supreme Court upheld Gage’s conviction on three counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
Authorities said Powell and his brother traveled more than an hour to get to Brown’s home to get paraphernalia and buy drugs.
“The entire assault, including the removal of the safe and laptop, lasted only 52 seconds,” Chief Justice David K. Thomson said in the high court’s unprecedented ruling.
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“A jury could reasonably conclude that the precisely choreographed actions in the video demonstrated careful thought sufficient to warrant deliberation,” Thomson wrote.
