Overhand guilty in beating case
Jurors convict on false imprisonment, conspiracy charges
Jurors found an Albuquerque man guilty Wednesday of false imprisonment and conspiracy in an August 2017 beating case tied closely to a homicide.
Mitchell Overhand’s trial before 2nd Judicial District Judge Briana Zamora wrapped up quickly. Jurors began deliberating around 1 p.m. Tuesday. They returned their verdict Wednesday morning, finding Overhand not guilty of all the other charges he faced, including aggravated battery.
During his testimony Monday, Matthew Tressler, the victim in the case, said he was certain he was going to be killed that day,
but Overhand somehow talked Chase Smotherman and Mariah Ferry into releasing him after an hourslong beating.
Prosecutors argued that Overhand encouraged the attack, even if he didn’t take part in it, and should be held responsible.
“Mitchell Overhand did get Matthew Tressler out of this very dangerous situation ... and we give him credit for doing that,” said prosecutor Jonathan Gardner. “But that good act doesn’t take away the other crimes that were committed.”
Overhand’s attorney, George Harrison, said there was no evidence that his client knew what was going to happen or that he participated in any way.
“They’re trying to blame him for what Chase and Mariah did despite the fact that he’s the one who went in and saved the life of Matthew Tressler,” Harrison told jurors during his closing argument.
Jurors ultimately found Overhand guilty of false imprisonment rather than kidnapping, and of conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence.
Smotherman is set for trial in the kidnapping case early next month, and Ferry’s trial in the case is set for June.
During the attack, Tressler said he was shown images of his best friend, John Soyka, dead and mutilated. And prosecutors said the group believed Soyka and Tressler had information about $2,000 worth of marijuana stolen from Smotherman.
Smotherman and Ferry are facing murder charges in Soyka’s death, and although Overhand was indicted on charges related to the disposal of the body, that case was dismissed by a judge last week. He was convicted in the 1980s of killing his parents and burying them in the family’s Paradise Hills backyard.
Overhand faced eight felony counts in the case, two of those charges — bribery of a witness and conspiracy to commit bribery of a witness — were dismissed by the judge ahead of the jury’s deliberations.