Judge: Ferguson violated probation
Man suspected in boy’s death did not comply with requirements after move, officer testifies
Astate District Court judge in Santa Fe ruled Tuesday that Thomas Wayne Ferguson, accused of killing his girlfriend’s son in November at a home in Nambé, had been in violation of the terms of his probation in another case for several months before the boy’s death and is likely to face prison time when he is sentenced in early April.
The probation violation dates back to a 2014 case, in which Ferguson, now 42, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and aggravated battery against a household member — a woman who was his girlfriend at the time. He was sentenced to prison, but the judge suspended most of that time, and Ferguson was released on probation in mid2015.
While he was serving the probation, he pleaded guilty in another domestic violence case, and in August 2017, he was labeled an absconder for failing to report to his probation officer. A bench warrant for his arrest was signed Nov. 21 — just days before Ferguson is accused of beating to death 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia.
Ferguson wasn’t jailed on the probation violation until January.
Had he been back in custody earlier, Jeremiah’s death might have been averted.
Ferguson was sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of probation for charges in the 2014 incident, court documents show. But District Judge T. Glenn Ellington suspended seven years, seven months and 23 days of the sentence. Because Ferguson had served more than a year in jail during court proceedings, he was released only a month after his sentencing, in June 2015.
In February 2016, he was charged in a similar domestic violence incident in Sandoval County. According to a criminal complaint, when a probation officer visited Ferguson’s home to check on him, a woman who answered the door appeared to have signs of battery.
In response, a Santa Fe prosecutor filed a motion asking Ellington to revoke Ferguson’s probation and send him to prison. Ellington denied that motion.
Sandoval County prosecutors pursued battery charges in the 2016 case, and Ferguson pleaded guilty — essentially admitting to committing another crime while on probation.
District Attorney Marco Serna said Ferguson’s conviction for the crime did not show up in databases his office uses.
Asked whether it would have made a difference if the office had known about the conviction, Serna said he couldn’t be sure.
“I can’t say exactly because the decision still falls upon the judge,” Serna said. “What I can say is that it would have helped our case with sentencing, in asking [Ferguson] to be remanded back into custody.”
For about a year, starting around August 2016, Ferguson was under the supervision of Las Vegas, N.M.-based probation officer Ernest Duran, who testified in court Tuesday before Ellington.
At first, Duran said, Ferguson reported to him as he was required to do. Duran had been to Ferguson’s house, he told the court, and had seen Ferguson at his job as a manager at a local KFC restaurant.
In early 2017, Ferguson started looking for work in Santa Fe County, Duran said, and in June, he
moved to Santa Fe County and stopped reporting to Duran.
Ferguson sent the probation office his new address in Nambé, Duran said, but did not comply with requirements to meet with his probation officer.
Ferguson’s lawyer, Michael Jones, argued that although Ferguson had contact with different members of the probation and parole team, nobody ever delivered in writing where he was supposed to be. Ellington was not convinced. Meanwhile, Ferguson is charged with firstdegree murder and 17 other counts in Jeremiah’s death. The boy’s mother, Tracy Ann Peña, 35, and Ferguson’s 19-year-old son, Jordan Anthony Nuñez, also face charges in the case.