Psychological Exam Ordered For Two Men For Gay Attack

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO - The two men most culpable in the beating of two gay men more than a year ago were led out of state District Judge Michael Vigil’s courtroom in handcuffs Wednesday.
“Both of you need to see the inside of the penitentiary,” Vigil said to an audible gasp from the men’s friends and families. “The viciousness of this attack warrants you going to the penitentiary to see where you will live your life if this type of activity continues.”
Vigil ordered Gabriel Maturin, 21, and Isaia Medina, 20, to each undergo a 60-day psychological exam at the New Mexico State Penitentiary in Los Lunas for their roles in the beating. After that, the two men will reappear before Vigil for further sentencing.
All six men accused in the early-morning attack on James Maestas, 22, and Joshua Stockham, 24, in the parking lot of a Cerrillos Road motel Feb. 27, 2005, appeared for sentencing Wednesday afternoon. And all of them became the first defendants in New Mexico to be sentenced under the hate-crime statute passed in 2003. The prosecutor, Shari Weinstein, who helped author the legislation , said the law was designed for a case such as this.
Two of the defendants, who were slated to go on trial later this month, accepted plea bargains and were sentenced alongside their fellow defendants . The two — Jonathan Valdez , 21, and Paul Montoya, 20 — along with Joseph Cano, 19, each were sentenced to three years of supervised probation and 500 hours of community service that will include speaking to high-school and college students about what they did. The three were the least culpable in the attack, according to earlier testimony.
Vigil ordered another man accused in the attack, David Trinidad, 18, to participate in an “intense” treatment program in Las Vegas, N.M., for adult sexual offenders, then serve five years of probation afterward.
In a phone interview after the sentencing, Maestas said he was OK with the sentences handed down for Valdez, Montoya and Cano as well as for Trinidad, “I really think he needs help.” But his sympathy doesn’t extend to Maturin and Medina.
“When Gabe and Isaia got up and looked at me and said they were sorry — you can say sorry as many times as you want, but it doesn’t change anything,” said Maestas, who spent eight days in a coma after the attack. “What happened that night — 10 more minutes and I would have been dead.”
Maestas, who suffered facial trauma and aspirated on his own blood, told Vigil he had to learn how to walk and talk again as well as relearn to perform everyday tasks like dress himself. The pain on the faces of his family as they helped him with those tasks was painful, he said.
“I will never, ever forget this,” Maestas said. “Having someone hate your lifestyle so much that they would physically beat you is hard to accept.”
His mother, Gerrie Maestas, told the judge about looking at her son for the first time in intensive care.
“Nobody can prepare you for seeing someone you love so dearly in that kind of condition ,” she said. “I wanted to wrap him up in a blanket and run with him where no one could hurt him.”
Gerrie Maestas turned to the six defendants sitting on her left and chastised those implicated in the beating as well as those “who chose to do nothing .”
“You left him for dead,” she said. “That’s something I can’t comprehend.”
Stockham’s mother, Sheryl Stockham, called the defendants “mean and cold-hearted” and said they lacked respect for society.
“Things will never be the same for him again,” she said of her son. “He will always be looking over his shoulder in fear that someone will attack him.”
Sheryl Stockham also had a message for the six men. “Gay people do not choose to be gay,” she said. “Who would choose to have a life where people hate you? One of you may have a child that turns out to be gay. What will your reaction be at that time? What will the reaction be of people like you who hate gays?”
But Joshua Stockham, who was punched in the face during the attack before he ran away, was conciliatory. “I do forgive you guys,” he said as he walked to the podium. “There’s no point in holding a grudge on something that can’t be changed. I will forgive you, but I won’t forget.”
Numerous friends and relatives also spoke on behalf of the six defendants, who all faced James Maestas and Joshua Stockham, and apologized. Except for Trinidad, they were described as upstanding young men with solid upbringings and bright futures who made a terrible mistake. Trinidad was the only one in the group with a previous criminal record and the only one nobody except his lawyer spoke up for.
Vigil acknowledged that Valdez , Montoya and Cano were the least culpable in the attack but chastised them nonetheless . “You had a responsibility to stop (the attack),” Vigil told Valdez.
To Cano, the one who drove the group from the restaurant where an initial confrontation took place to the hotel where the attack occurred, Vigil said: “You are so central because you could have said, ‘I’m not driving you anywhere. You’re drunk, you’re stupid, and I’m not driving you anywhere.’”
However, the judge found Maturin and Medina most perplexing . “Your cases trouble me the most,” Vigil said. “There’s something wrong, and I don’t know what it is. Something happened; something snapped.”
Relatives and friends described Maturin as a good person who was never a troublemaker and was, in fact, a mediator, according to a former coach who spoke Wednesday.
In addition, Maturin also became the father of a daughter three days ago, said his mother, Barbara Maturin.
“He’s a good son,” she said. “He’s always taken care of his family.”
With Medina, friends and relatives gushed about him, calling his behavior “out of character.” When Medina’s lawyer asked all the people who came to support his client to stand up, between 20 and 25 people rose from their chairs.
A family friend, Carla C de Baca, said Medina was “the politest person I’ve ever met” and told Vigil she was on her way to put her house up for collateral to get Medina out of jail after the attack happened when she heard the family of an ex-girlfriend had already done the same thing.
Lisa Ellis, his probation officer , spoke on his behalf, saying he was “respectful and courteous .”
Finally, Manuel Quintana, a friend of Medina’s who is gay, told Vigil that Medina had always been compassionate toward him and “he is capable of so much.”
In ordering more information about the two men, Vigil warned Medina and Gabriel Maturin to be honest during their evaluations “about what caused you to go off the deep end.”
“Alcohol doesn’t make someone a racist, a homophobe or a hateful person,” the judge said. “Those are things that are there.”
from Free New Mexican