My name is Michael Armendàrìz, from Los Lunas, New Mexico. I’ve been incarcerated for 23 years, since 2002, following the death of an off-duty deputy sheriff — a tragedy that occurred while I was defending my friend Nestor Chavez from a violent assault initiated by several intoxicated off-duty officers at a local Los Lunas bar. This is my story.
When celebrating the engagement of my best friend Nestor Chavez at a bar called Two Minute Warning in Los Lunas, NM, one of our friends was sexually assaulted by a man who had arrived with a large group of his friends. Nestor intervened and knocked him unconscious. I saw Nestor being escorted outside by security and I immediately rounded up the rest of our friends to get us all home.
According to the bar owner, after we exited, the large group of men, one of whom was responsible for the assault of our friend, fought their way past security to intercept us outside. Many members of his group swarmed Nestor. One of them pinned Nestor down on the car next to mine while another put him in a stranglehold — for a significant amount of time. That same person had already taken a large bite out of Nestor’s back, causing blood loss all over the scene. While Nestor was restrained in a stranglehold, the man’s friends continued hitting and kicking him. Nestor’s shirt was covered in blood as he was being choked unconscious, two hands crushing his neck. His body was spasming and his eyes were rolling into the back of his head. I tried to break up the fight using my hands but was outnumbered and unable.
My girlfriend Sandra passed me a gun, a gun that she kept in order to defend herself from her abusive ex-boyfriend. She lived in legitimate fear of him at the time. When I first met Sandra, she had stitches in her forehead from being hit.
I brandished the weapon, which sent several of the men scattering. I helped Nestor to his feet and together we backed away. On our retreat, two of Nestor’s attackers approached us, closing the distance. I pointed the gun in the air and tried to let off a warning shot. There was a dry click as the gun misfired. They continued following us and I spun around to quickly chamber another round. One of the men dragged his toe on the asphalt a couple times as if to caricature a bull about to charge. His cohort smiled at me slightly, and I became scared by the very real possibility that I was about to get killed in front of my girlfriend. One of the men dove at me. I had already exhausted my defensive instincts. When his hand was a few inches from the gun, I pulled the trigger as my last resort. My actions were the result of being outnumbered, protecting those I love, and watching my best friend get bit zombie-style and nearly strangled to death in public. The man sustained bullet wounds to his upper torso and died.
I found out one day later this group of men, including the one who had sexually assaulted our friend and the one whose stranglehold caused Nestor to lose consciousness, comprised several corrections officers from the local penitentiary, a New Mexico State Police officer, and a Valencia County deputy sheriff. All of them had been drunk and off-duty that night. God willing you’re never in those shoes but if so, what would you even do? Where’s a cop when you need one, right?
Following that night, narratives shared by the media portrayed the deceased as a hero and me as a violent gangster who deserved the death penalty. Several local news outlets reported that a Valencia County sheriff was murdered and his New Mexico State Police brother shot at a Los Lunas restaurant while celebrating a child’s birthday party even though official court documents state that the events occurred at a bar after midnight with no children present. Various news outlets reported that the Montanos were shot when helping bouncers break up a fight between two women. However, the bar owner described as false the reports that said the officers were shot while trying to help him break up a fight.
Nothing in the news mentioned their role in initiating a violent assault against my best friend. Nothing mentioned that the sheriff who lost his life that night was under a restraining order from his wife, or that he had been charged with battery against a pregnant household member and domestic violence with children two years prior. His name went on to be inscribed on the Fallen Heroes Memorial wall in Washington DC, where his family later met with then President George W. Bush and subsequently received “line of duty” death benefits despite our attacker being off-duty, drunk per Blood Alcohol Reports, and therefore not acting in any official capacity. These honors were given to him well before my trial.
While in county, I realized that I was being set up for failure. My court appointed attorney undermined my defense while leading me to believe he was building the case. He wouldn’t take my word regarding the events nor look into or protect the existing evidence supporting my narrative. A few months before trial, he began acting as if he was coming around and suggested my need for an independent investigation. He sent two copies of vouchers for funds issued by the public defender’s department so that private investigatory work could be undertaken on my behalf. What actually happened was that he defrauded the public defender’s office for a couple thousand dollars and no PI work occurred on my behalf concerning my defense. As time ran out, I could clearly see that my lawyer was not protecting my interests so I asked the court for a different attorney. I was told I couldn’t. I was ignorant of the law and my options.
All this fanfare was well publicized during the investigation leading to my trial. I sat like a prop in this mockery of justice as I found that DNA and blood evidence proving Nestor’s injuries — and the actions I took in his defense — were destroyed, or “went missing,” thereby consuming the truth of what had happened. Original security footage that captured the incident in entirety was promptly confiscated and replaced by the lead detective of the case. An independent video expert in my post-conviction proceedings attested to the fact that sequential time-stamped frames were missing, consistent with illegal editing. My court-appointed public defender not only failed to investigate these inconsistencies when I asked him, but made it clear that no attorney worth his salt wanted to hear about the law from a “low-rider mustache.”
I was convicted without a fair trial. In the courtroom, my public defender failed to preserve the integrity of any evidence, including surveillance footage which captured the night’s events. He acted in tacit complicity as the video was edited to supplement the State’s false narrative.
So in spite of a detective criminally altering video footage to cover up their colleague’s drunken rampage and the attempted murder of Nestor Chavez, I was given a life sentence plus 13 years for the murder of a deputy sheriff. When Channel 2 FOX news asked me to comment on the verdict, I responded with a Spanish proverb: “No hay mal que por bien no venga,” which means “there’s no bad that good won’t come out of.” That evening, the FOX anchorman said I “told the family of the victims to ‘bring it on’, in Spanish.”
I was shortly thereafter placed in solitary confinement due to the “high profile” nature of my case. In that supermax, 23-hour-a day lockdown facility where I experienced life-threatening incidents, I nevertheless continued to appeal my conviction. Over the past two decades, I’ve filed countless appeals and petitions on my own. Despite the testimonies of independent investigators who confirmed evidence-tampering and false reporting, my appeals have been denied at every level — all the way up to the US Supreme Court. I must have written more than a hundred letters seeking legal representation, or just advice. I wrote to the state public defender’s office, local and national law firms, the ACLU, and the Innocence Project. But I was given the run around, ignored, wished the best and denied, and told that while my case may have merit, self-defense is not an “actual innocence” claim.
So I’ve been in prison for 23 years. Over this time, I’ve dedicated myself to personal growth, education, and helping others. I’ve been published by Just Write in the book “As Us,” as seen in The Incarcerated Intellectual, and I’ve read my poetry for Abantu Audio. I’ve written speeches from prison to read aloud at community events, including Raza in Recovery held at Roosevelt Park in Albuquerque. I’ve spoken at my legal fundraising events, at many events organized by Millions for Prisoners, and I recently spoke on the Merciless Indian Savage radio show on public access channel 27. I made music with Baby Bash, Rasheed, Don Cisco, Mystika Rose, Rigo Luna, Shadow Ramirez, Genevieve Zamora, and many others. My ultimate goal is to return to my community as an activist, journalist, and counselor focused on violence de-escalation and to help others navigate trauma.
Things have since developed based on clear evidence of the legal and procedural failures in the treatment of my case. My friend put me in connection with a post-conviction specialist in Albuquerque who launched an investigation into my case. He’s confirmed that I have a path forward in terms of legal relief via the filing of a state habeas corpus petition — one that could be referenced in years to come in support of cases like mine. Cases that hinge on the systemic abuses that allow wrongful convictions to stand unchallenged in New Mexico, cases that rely on the law enforcement’s relationship with the media to deny defendants their right to due process and in many cases the right to see their children grow up. I never intended to take that man away from his family but he forced my hand and my young mind found no alternative. My friend and I were unfairly targeted by many fight-trained people whose jobs were to protect us. Yet, we had to survive their attack and got our narrative stolen by a system designed to uphold “justice.” In my situation, what would you pray for?
I have very little resources to advance my cause. I’m taking this opportunity to ask for help in covering the costs that will incur from the filing of my habeas petition and the resurrecting of a buried truth.
Every share, connection, or donation will help me and my team expose the legal injustices within the state’s application of the “rule of law” and challenge a conviction built on a manipulated story that has unfairly sentenced me to life behind bars. If you work in criminal justice reform or wrongful conviction advocacy, please reach out. If you’ve heard my music or are a fan of my art, as seen on freespook.com, please reach out.
Thank you for standing with me,
Michael Armendariz
