Local man gets life in prison

A judge sentenced a Tucumcari man to life in prison after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the May 2022 shooting of another local man after an argument at a high-school graduation party.

Judge Drew Tatum, labeling the killing of Michael Arellano, 46, as "inhumane" and "tragic," delivered the sentence Thursday to Tyje Garrett, 44, after a jury of seven women and five men took just over two hours to come to a verdict in the Quay County Courthouse after a four-day trial.

"I'm tired of lives being taken, people being hurt, for no reason whatsoever," Tatum said.

Before sentencing Garrett, Tatum took a few minutes in the judge's chambers to read 14 victim-impact statements from members of Arellano's family.

Before his sentence, Garrett stood and faced Arellano's relatives in the courtroom.

"To all of you, I express my deepest condolences," he said. "I wish it never would have happened. I want to ask you in your heart to forgive me."

Addressing Tatum, Garrett acknowledged he hadn't been the best father or the best husband but that he had stayed out of prison for the past 13 years.

"I want to ask you in your heart to be lenient," he told the judge.

After Tatum's sentence, an officer placed handcuffs on Garrett's wrists and escorted him from the courtroom.

District Attorney Heidi Adams spoke to members of Arellano's family after court adjourned.

"I think we got justice for Michael today," Adams said afterward. "It's been a long two years for them."

Adams said the strongest piece of evidence to support Garrett's conviction of first-degree murder was the 12 shots he took at Arellano with a semi-automatic rifle.

"It was the repeated firing of the weapon," she said. "Was it just one shot? No, it was 12 shots."

Jurors rejected public defender Anna Aragon's arguments to convict Garrett on lesser charges of second-degree murder or manslaughter, which would have meant no more than 15 years in prison for the former and no more than three years for the latter. A conviction of first-degree murder means a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Aragon didn't dispute that Garrett had shot Arellano, but she maintained he was provoked by Arellano's alleged threats against him and his children at the graduation party, held for Arellano's son and Garrett's stepson.

"I'm disappointed, very disappointed," Aragon said of the sentence, adding that she planned to appeal.

Jurors also convicted Garrett on a felony count of tampering with evidence for throwing the murder weapon into a roadside from his vehicle after the shooting. Tatum delivered a three-year sentence on that conviction and that it would be consecutive after the murder sentence.

During sentencing arguments, Adams recommended the maximum possible punishment of life in prison on the murder conviction and three years for tampering to run consecutively.

Adams said Garrett had a violent criminal history, including cases of battery to a household member in New Mexico and other crimes in Texas.

Adams said Garrett shouldn't have been at the graduation party due to the conditions of his battery conviction.

"If he had followed orders, Michael would be here today," she said.

Aragon argued the household battery conviction "doesn't necessarily mean he was violent."

She said Garrett thought he had finished the terms of his probation, which was why he attended the party for his stepson.

Aragon asked for a suspended or concurrent sentence on the tampering conviction.

During closing arguments Thursday morning, Adams prefaced her case with: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

She said after Arellano departed the graduation party following his and Garrett's arguments, Garrett deliberately and intentionally killed Arellano by getting into his vehicle, going down the driveway, driving on Quay Road 63 on Tucumcari's west side, turning his vehicle around, stopping to confront Arellano in the roadway and then shooting at him 12 times at close range, including several shots after Arellano had fallen.

"At some point, why didn't he stop shooting?" Adams said to the jury, arguing it was a calculated decision.

She also cited Garrett's testimony, where he admitted to consciously squeezing the rifle's trigger each time.

As for the tampering charge, Adams said Garrett tossed the rifle from his vehicle "to make sure the firearm wouldn't be linked to him."

If not for a farmer who found the firearm, Adams said it's doubtful the murder weapon would have been recovered.

In her closing argument, Aragon said Garrett disposed of the rifle because he didn't want "to be a black man with a firearm" when law-enforcement officers encountered him, inferring to other cases where police shot black people.

Aragon urged for a conviction of manslaughter, saying Garrett was provoked by alcohol, anger and adrenaline - "a deadly combination."

She said during the argument at the party, Arellano directed a racial slur at Garrett and made threats against him and his two small children, including burning his house down. Aragon also said Arellano was "waiting for backup" after he called his brothers about the situation.

"This is a classic case off provocation ... sufficient provocation," Aragon said.

In her rebuttal, Adams said there was no sufficient provocation for the shooting and that Garrett was "not so intoxicated he didn't know what he was doing."

She noted Garrett drove for 20 miles on U.S. 54 after the shooting without an accident and stopped to get gas in Logan. Adams said Garrett understood a police officer's instructions after his arrest.

"Mr. Garrett has had two years to come up with a story," Adams said.

Tatum, based out of Clovis, was assigned by the New Mexico Supreme Court to preside over the case after Tucumcari District Judge Albert Mitchell Jr. retired and local District Attorney Timothy Rose was appointed as judge.