Man sentenced to prison in dog-attack case

A Tucumcari man will spend nearly five years in prison for his role in a local man’s fatal mauling by a pack of dogs last year.

San Miguel County District Judge Abigail Aragon on Dec. 2 sentenced Kristopher Jaquarias Morris, 29, to six years in prison with credit for 134 days served in the Quay County Detention Center after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of prohibited acts (dangerous dog; death of a person).

Aragon classified the conviction as a violent felony, which means Morris must serve 85% of his sentence. Minus credit for his incarceration in the county jail, Morris will have to spend about 4 3/4 years in prison. After his release, he must serve a mandatory two years of parole.

Another charge of involuntary manslaughter was dropped as part of a plea agreement.

Morris’ five loose dogs attacked and killed Stanley Hartt, 64, of Tucumcari as he walked near Mesalands Community College in February 2023.

Morris’ mother, Mary Olimpia Montoya, 52, pleaded guilty in October to one count in the case and one count from a subsequent child-abuse case involving Morris’ son.

Deputy district attorney Ozy Adams had recommended six years in prison for Morris.

Morris’ public defender, Brett Phelps, asked for the same six-month jail sentence given to his mother.

“This was an act of negligence,” Phelps said. “He has major regrets about this situation.”

Morris’ wife Olivia tearfully pleaded for leniency. She said she is disabled and needed Morris to come home to care for her and her two young children.

Morris, appearing in court by video link from the Quay County Detention Center, voiced regrets about the dog attack before he was sentenced.

“I wish things would have went different that night. I wish I was there to stop the dogs from getting out. I wish there was a bunch of things that I did different before all of this happened,” he said.

“If I had known that there was any chance that those dogs had that capability of doing any of that, I would have had them put down personally. But because I didn’t pay attention and I was never home, this happened. And I every day I live with that regret. I regret not being home to stop those dogs from getting out. And there’s nothing I can do or say that can bring him back.”

But Aragon, citing a diagnostic evaluation report on Morris, said he took no responsibility for the dogs and was evasive and disingenuous. She said he tried to claim the dogs he owned were someone else’s. She also said Morris failed to secure a gate in the backyard that allowed the dogs to run loose through the city.

Aragon, noting the child-abuse charge against Morris, also voiced concern for his children.

Before the sentence, a court official read a victim-impact statement from Hartt’s father Stephan, a retired Salvation Army major. The statement was similar to one read at Montoya’s sentencing.

The elder Hartt wrote about the grief and loss of his son felt by his family, and he expressed gratitude for the comfort from residents of Tucumcari, family and friends.

Hartt urged stricter leash laws in the city, better fencing by dog owners, more city enforcement or volunteer groups that would target dog scofflaws and quarterly reports to the city commission about the loose-dogs problem.

The five dogs identified as those involved in the attack initially were kept at the city pound for evidence purposes and later euthanized.

Aragon also sentenced Morris to a three-year suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty in an agreement with prosecutors to felony child abuse. He must undergo three years of supervised probation.

Adams said Morris in June had disciplined his young son in an “excessive” manner, striking him on the face and head and hitting him with a belt on his bare buttocks.

The cases were moved to San Miguel County after the district attorney during the time of the attack, Timothy Rose, was appointed judge in the 10th Judicial District after the retirement of Judge Albert Mitchell Jr.