A judge on Monday sentenced A 33-year-old Rio Rancho man to 44 years in prison for his role in the armed robbery of a Santa Fe medical cannabis growing facility in 2013. That comes on top of the 24 years to which he was sentenced in August for robbing three Santa Fe motels at gunpoint in 2015.
Convicted felons are usually contrite when they address the judge at their sentencing hearing, apologizing and asking for mercy.
Not Reyes B. Barela.
After listening to one of the owners of the New Mexico Top Organics cannabis facility testify Monday about the emotional and financial toll the robberies had on his life, Barela continued to deny he committed the crimes he was convicted of, and criticized the judge’s handling of the case.
“I do feel bad for what they’ve had to go through,” Barela said. “I can’t begin to understand how it affected or altered their lives. If I could offer an apology I would, but I can not take responsibility for something I didn’t do.”
From there Barela attacked District Judge T. Glenn Ellington’s handling of the case, saying the judge had allowed jurors to hear testimony that should have been kept out — including a confession Barela’s attorneys argued had been coerced — and had turned a blind eye to inconsistent statements by a sheriff’s detective, asserting that the judge was biased because the deputy works in the courthouse.
“How is this justice?” Barela demanded. “How is this fair? My life was taken away the day you gave me 24 years. Thank god for an appeal. … There is a guy downstairs that killed somebody and just got 10 years. I can’t even be placed the scene of the crime and I’ve gotten my life taken away from me? I feel sorry for the day your judgment comes because I believe in God and like it says in the Book of Matthew ‘you too will be judged’ and the way you’ve chosen to judge others is the way you too will be judged, 10 times over. So I’ll pray for you, sir.”
Barela was charged with 12 felony counts related to the 2013 armed robbery in which authorities said he and two or three other men entered the medical cannabis facility through a back door, tied up the two men who owned the business and held them at gunpoint while stealing $30,000 worth of marijuana and then fleeing in an SUV belonging to one of the business owners.
Prosecutors held three trials before getting a guilty verdict in the case, which was complicated by the fact that the victims couldn’t positively identify each person involved in the holdup — the victims said the thieves had their faces covered — and there was no physical evidence tying Barela to the scene.
Leopoldo Maez, one of the other men implicated in the heist, had been offered a plea deal that called for him to serve about four years in prison if he agreed to testify against Barela, according to statements by prosecutors and the judge in court Monday.
But Maez ultimately backed out of the deal, refused to testify and was sentenced to 97 years with 53 years suspended for a total of 44 years for his role in the armed robbery and other crimes.
Assistant District Attorney Kent Wahlquist said he couldn’t comment Monday on what cases may or may not have been brought against the other co-defendants.
Barela’s first trial ended in a mistrial after a state witness accidentally volunteered information about Barela’s prior bad acts, which had already been ruled inadmissible by the judge.
The second trial ended with a hung jury.
But, before pronouncing the sentence, Ellington reminded Barela on Monday that the third jury convicted Barela on all 12 counts against him, including two counts of first-degree kidnapping, each punishable by 18 years in prison.
Barela’s sentence was enhanced by the fact that he used a gun and had prior felony convictions.
