Man gets maximum on rape, voyeurism charges
Emotional pleas for a lighter sentenced dismissed by judge
SANTA FE - State District Court Judge T. Glenn Ellington on Friday gave a Santa Fe musician the maximum sentence — three days short of 12 years — on charges that included two rape counts and two counts of voyeurism for videos he’d taken.
Michael Collins, 46, who’s been in jail for more than a year and eight months since his arrest in August 2015, pleaded guilty Friday to six charges and no contest to another. He also must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Ellington was not persuaded to issue a lighter sentence by emotional pleas from Collins’ Santa Fe family, who said he needs treatment for drug and sex addictions and that he’s a caring and creative person when not under the influence.
Also, the woman who Collins is accused of assaulting in the incident that led to his arrest — Collins threatened her with a rif le and pulled a phone from her hand as she called 911, and the woman crawled through a window to escape, with police outside Collins’ home — told the judge via a telephone hook-up that Collins shouldn’t “spend the rest of his life in prison.”
She said she’d been traumatized and was glad to be alive but that she’d found forgiveness for Collins and that he would benefit from treatment, with learning to respect women as part of his rehabilitation. Drugs were involved, she said, and that “brings out the worst in people.”
Collins apologized and said he takes responsibility for what he’d done and that he wants the chance to get treatment. “I want to make this right,” he said. His lawyer said Collins and the woman were “using anything they could get their hands on” before Collins’ arrest.
A prosecutor and a detective said Collins had exhibited “decades” of behavior similar to the acts for which he’s charged, including videotaping women undressing or being assaulted while unconscious. He had two prior convictions in Arizona and California.
In the case that led to his arrest, the woman had a platonic relationship with Collins before he offered her a place to stay, said prosecutor Susan Stinson.
The two videos that led to his voyeurism charges were of her, including one where she was getting out of the shower and another from the bathroom. In one, the camera was dropped and it showed Collins, Stinson said.
She said whatever the two smoked the night police were called made her drowsy and she drifted in and out of consciousness. She found Collins with his hand up her shirt and her pants unbuttoned and at one point he was wearing a green and silver “alien” mask later found in the apartment. She showed a police photo of a “device” attached by duct tape to the underside of a toilet in his apartment.