SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The state Supreme Court has upheld the first-degree murder convictions of two men in separate cases stemming from killings in southeastern New Mexico.
Thursday’s rulings were prompted by appeals of the convictions of Arnoldo Navarette of Portales in the 1993 Memorial Day fatal shooting of Reynaldo Ornelas Sr. and of Albert Tegeda III of Roswell in the 2007 killing of Celso Martinez.
Navarette fled after Ornelas was killed. He was sought for about 16 years before being arrested in 2009 in Odessa, Texas, where he was working under an alias.
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Navarette’s first conviction in the Ornelas killing was overturned on appeal, but he was convicted again in a retrial before being sentenced a second time to life in prison.
Tegeda also is serving a life sentence.
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