Tragedy reveals 2 faces of jail’s ‘revolving door’
Despite violent past of assaults, longest jail stint for Jeremiah’s alleged killer just 16 months
SANTA FE — Thomas Ferguson is a violent man who seems to hurt those closest to him.
He also intimidates his victims, and threatens to harm them and their families if they tell law enforcement of his abuse, according to reports from his extensive violent criminal record.
His record has resulted in him being incarcerated several times, but the longest stint behind bars was 16 months, despite the repeated arrests and probation violations.
The 42-year-old is most recently accused of beating his girlfriend’s 13-year-old son to death in late November and then forcing the boy’s mother, Tracy Ann Pena, 35, and his own son, 19-year-old Jordan Nunez, to help dispose of the body.
The three are now each charged with child abuse resulting in death, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to tamper with evidence in the killing of Jeremiah Valencia.
It’s the fourth time that Ferguson has been accused of beating someone in New Mexico — all of them girlfriends or family members.
On Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys came to an agreement that Ferguson will remain in jail until trial for Jeremiah Valencia’s death. He already was facing long-term incarceration for violating probation in a 2014 case. Judge T. Glenn
Ellington agreed to the terms at a hearing in Santa Fe District Court.
Santa Fe County deputies began investigating Jeremiah’s death Jan. 25. An inmate at the Santa Fe County jail told authorities that Pena, who was in the jail on a probation violation, had recounted how she went to her house in Nambé on Nov. 26 after being released from jail previously and found her son dead inside his room, and that Ferguson had killed him. Pena and Nunez were allegedly forced to help stuff the body into a plastic container before the remains were buried a few miles from the home.
In the crime that has shocked the state, subsequent reports say Ferguson abused and tortured Jeremiah for some time with a hammer, brass knuckles and other implements. Jeremiah was beaten so badly by Ferguson that he required a cane and wheelchair to get around. Ferguson also allegedly kept Jeremiah in a dog kennel, starved him and forced him to wear an adult diaper.
In his most recent prior case, he received a prison sentence in 2015 that could have kept him behind bars for more than seven years for allegedly kidnapping and raping his girlfriend over five days.
But the prison sentence was suspended by Judge Ellington. Ferguson was placed on probation, yet he didn’t have to go back to prison after a probation violation for allegedly beating another woman.
Rape charge
The case started in 2014, when Ferguson was charged with one count each of criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping, aggravated battery on a household member and interference with communications. A Santa Fe Police report says a woman, who was identified as Ferguson’s longtime girlfriend, was kept at Ferguson’s house for five days, and was repeatedly beaten and sexually assaulted.
The woman was finally able to contact her mother, who called police. On Feb. 18, 2014, SWAT members entered the house and found Ferguson unconscious and took him to the hospital, believing he had overdosed on prescription pills.
The woman told police that the whole ordeal was a blur and at one point she remembered that she “was just laying there staring at the ceiling, just praying, just praying for God to get me out of this situation,” a report says.
Judge Ellington eventually approved a plea deal under which Ferguson pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of aggravated battery on a household member, according to a court document filed in May 2015. He was sentenced to nine years in prison, but with seven years, seven months and 23 days suspended, and was credited with the time he’d served in jail. He was released on June 30, 2015.
The prosecution also stipulated “to the charges being classified as non-violent.” Ferguson also was placed on five years supervised probation.
Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna, who didn’t take over the office until the start of 2017, said this week he recently spoke with prosecutor Anastasia Martin about why Ferguson was given the plea deal.
Serna said Martin told him that the woman who allegedly was assaulted by Ferguson went to the Santa Fe police after Ferguson was indicted and gave an account that was different from her initial story.
Serna said defense attorneys could have used the differing accounts to discredit the victim at trial. “The attorneys decided it would be best to secure a guilty plea rather than take chances at trial,” Serna said.
Seven months after his release, Ferguson was accused of violating his probation after police responded to a domestic violence call in Rio Rancho in February 2016.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Sandoval County Magistrate Court, a woman who answered the door for a probation officer showed signs of battery. When the officer asked if Ferguson was beating her, “she appeared scared and he noticed a hesitation about her that she was scared to tell him the truth.” The woman had bruising around her eyes, but said it was a birthmark.
She said the last time Ferguson beat her was about two weeks before when he pushed her over a chair in the kitchen over an argument. “She stated that she didn’t know how to get him out of her house,” the complaint says. “She indicated that Thomas doesn’t work or do anything and that he physically abuses her.”
When asked why she hadn’t reported him, she said she was scared of retaliation or of him sending someone to hurt her and her family. “She indicated that he tells her kids that he will beat them if they get involved,” the complaint states.
She had pictures on her phone that she said she had to hide from Ferguson. “She said he was paranoid and if she did anything that he perceived as a threat, he would argue with her and hit her.” She showed pictures of bruising on her right arm.
Ferguson was taken to the Sandoval County jail and held on a five-day probation violation hold, but no criminal charge for beating the woman in Rio Rancho shows up in the state court system.
Ellington issued an order in April 2016 that is hard to interpret in written form.
It says, “The court finds that the State’s Motion to Revoke Probation is well taken and GRANTED and the defendant violated probation.”
But the very next line in the document says, “It is ordered that the Defendant be reinstated on probation” — meaning Ferguson would not be incarcerated or have to complete the full nine-year sentence that had been suspended before.
The document originally said Ferguson had admitted to a probation violation by “picking up new charges,” but that line was crossed out and “having negative contact with police” was written in by hand. Serna said Tuesday that his office has requested transcripts from that hearing to see what happened since the attorney who worked the case has moved on.
Ferguson now faces a probation violation for not showing up for a scheduled meeting at the Las Vegas probation office June 20, according to a report, and continually evading probation officers. His probation officer declared him an absconder, but a petition to revoke probation wasn’t filed by Deputy District Attorney Michael Nunez until Nov. 20.
Jeremiah Nunez was killed six days later.
Ferguson was arrested and booked into the Santa Fe County jail for the probation revocation on Jan. 17, online records show. He was in jail when authorities learned of the beating death of Jeremiah Valencia and has been incarcerated ever since.
Prior cases
In an earlier case, from May 2003, Ferguson’s then-wife told Santa Fe police officers she began to argue with Ferguson at their Hopewell Street home after she accused him of having an affair. She said he knocked her down, punched her in the head and choked her until she lost consciousness. He also kicked her in the torso and upper back area while she was holding their 8-month-old baby and was two months pregnant, she told police.
The woman, who had injuries on her face, neck and legs, and the baby, who got a contusion on her forehead, were taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Ferguson was acquitted of a felony child abuse charge, but found guilty of misdemeanor battery on a household member. He was given credit for the five months he spent in jail or on electronic monitoring while awaiting trial, was placed on supervised probation for six months, and was required to get counseling for family, parenting and anger issues, according to court documents.
Ferguson’s criminal career began in New Mexico in 1996 when he was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He violated his probation and served six months in the Quay County jail, according to Corrections.
Ferguson also was sentenced to probation again by former state District Court Judge Michael Vigil for a 2001 shoplifting charge.
Ferguson’s criminal history in Texas dates back to April 2005 with a charge of assault causing bodily injury to a family member. He racked up several more charges, including violating a protective order and carrying a prohibited weapon, before June 2006 when he was sentenced to nine years incarceration and four years probation for obstruction or retaliation, as well as a violation of a protective order against him.
It’s unclear when or why he got out of prison in Texas, but records provided by Corrections show he was under New Mexico supervision for the obstruction conviction between August 2009 and October 2014.