Man gets 21 years in 2019 killing of Taos cafe owner

Defense attorney says jurors’ verdict was rushed due to pandemic, seeks new trial

TAOS — Gregg Steele, 53, convicted in February of second-degree murder and two counts of tampering with evidence in the 2019 death of his next-door neighbor, Taos coffee shop owner Patrick Larkin, was sentenced last week to 21 years in prison.

Steele shot Larkin during a late-night encounter in August 2019 and then disposed of Larkin’s body and the pistol he had used in the shooting. He claimed he had shot Larkin in self-defense when Larkin came on his Taos County property armed with a rifle and angry about a slain goat.

Prior to the sentencing hearing May 27, Steele’s attorney filed a motion requesting a new trial. Tom Clark argued in the motion that due to COVID-19, everyone involved in the trial was masked and socially distanced and that jurors in Raton, where the trial was held, made too swift a decision.

They returned with a guilty verdict less than an hour after deliberations began.

State District Court Judge Jeffrey Shannon agreed the trial was conducted under “unique circumstances.” The court will hear Steele’s motion for a new trial June 24. Friends and family of 63-year-old Larkin — including Andrea Meyer, his partner of 15 years — came to court to recount stories about him.

Jason Boyd, one of Larkin’s best friends, spoke of his relationship with Larkin through skiing and described his “enthusiasm, athleticism and wry sense of humor.”

Boyd, who found Larkin’s body, also talked about Larkin’s transition to partnership and fatherhood “later in life than most” and said he believed Larkin was “truly fulfilled” with his new role as a family man with Meyer and their

daughter, Oona.

Deputy District Attorney Consuelo Garcia also read several letters from people who knew both Larkin and Steele. Among the letters were one claiming Steele had falsely portrayed himself as a tribal member to scare people from the area, one describing his threatening behavior and one alleging Steele had spoken about crimes he had committed.

Meyer and prosecutors urged Shannon to impose the maximum sentence for Steele’s three convictions, a total of 25 years.

Clark admitted Steele had made “horrific mistakes” in the way he had treated and disposed of Larkin’s body — which ended up hidden in sagebrush along a roadside — but noted “Larkin brought a gun into the situation and got killed.”

Steele also spoke at the hearing, apologizing to Meyer and going on to say he didn’t have justification or excuses “because I’m a man who’s responsible for his actions. … I don’t want to sit here and apologize. I just want to express my mind and the facts.”

He defended his actions as a mistake made as Larkin approached his property with a firearm. “I felt like a deer in the headlights,” Steele said.

“It wasn’t my choice,” he added. “… It just became a tragedy and a runaway train.”

Shannon gave Steele the maximum sentence — 15 years for the murder plus a year for a firearm enhancement, three years for each tampering count and a one-year habitual-offender enhancement for each of the three felony charges.

Steele has a felony conviction in California for stealing cable.

His sentences for the tampering charges will be served concurrently, the judge said, trimming four years off his sentence. Steele will have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Shannon told Steele, “I’m not going to sentence you based upon the man who Patrick Larkin was. I’m sentencing you based upon you. Whether the victim is a pillar of the community or whether the victim was someone you may not want to be associated with — they all deserve justice.”

The judge also said he was disappointed in the way Larkin’s body was treated, left in the brush for family and friends to find.

A version of this story first ran in The Taos News, a sister publication of the Santa Fe New Mexican.