Plea deal in Hatch officer’s shooting delayed
Accused wanted assurance on where he’d serve sentence
LAS CRUCES — A plea deal between the federal government and an accused cop killer stalled Friday after prosecutors couldn’t guarantee that Jesse Hanes won’t serve time in a New Mexico prison.
Hanes is accused of firstdegree murder in state court for the August 2016 killing of Hatch police officer José Chavez and has not entered a plea in that case. Separately, federal prosecutors have charged him with multiple felony counts related to carjacking and possession and use of a firearm.
Hanes and another man, James Nelson, were fugitives from an Ohio murder when Chavez pulled over the 1991 silver Lexus sedan Hanes was driving, according to court documents. The men were allegedly carrying enough meth and marijuana to be drug dealers, documents allege. Hanes allegedly shot Chavez through the passenger side window then fled, allegedly stopping to steal a vehicle and shoot a bystander before law enforcement apprehended him. Hanes, 39, signed the plea agreement Friday before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack in Las Cruces, exchanging a guilty plea to the federal charges in exchange for assurance that his federal and any state sentence would run concurrently. Brack asked if he understood the document he had signed.
Wearing a brown prison uniform and blond goatee, Hanes told Brack he wanted to be certain he would serve all his time in federal prison, preferably in his native Ohio — and not in New Mexico.
“My problem is I know the law a little bit to fight, but I don’t know all the lawyer words,” he told Brack. “When I read the plea agreement, it said my time is going to be (run) concurrent with my state time. That worried me because it sounded like it was giving the state custody, and I feel like the state’s going out of its way to try to (retain) custody over me.”
A court interpreter translated the proceeding into Spanish as Chavez’s mother, father and other family members looked on.
“But if I’m doing life no matter what, the only reason they would want to have custody over me in the state case is to make my life a little worse, you know ... And that’s the only way I wanted to enter into a plea bargain in the first place, was to make sure I remain in federal custody.”
Hanes’ statement raised a question that had not been addressed in the plea deal. Brack called a recess.
Defense attorneys and the prosecution conferred — but with the local district attorney tied up in the murder trial of former Santa Fe sheriff’s deputy Tai Chan in state court down the street, it became clear there would be no quick answer.
“I apologize to all the people that are here,” said Mario Esparza, Hanes’ defense counsel, to the court. “This is something we weren’t prepared to argue at this point.”
Brack issued a continuance, postponing the discussion of a plea deal.
As the Chan case broke for lunch at midday, 3rd Judicial District Attorney Mark D’Antonio learned that the plea deal had been put on hold.
Asked whether he wanted Hanes to serve state prison time in New Mexico, D’Antonio told the Journal that it was “ethically premature to answer,” because Hanes hasn’t yet pleaded to the state felony murder, drug and assault charges against him.