By Alex Tomlin
KRQE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Michael Guzman is in a coma after a pack of inmates attacked him. Guzman had been sentenced to death for kidnapping and raping two UNM students back in 1981, and murdering one of them.
Guzman was an 18-year-old dishwasher when he kidnapped the women, raped them and stabbed them dozens of times. Only one survived the attack. Now it’s a waiting game to see if Guzman will survive his attackers.
Guzman kidnapped the two young women off Central as they walked to the Frontier for a coffee break. Guzman took the UNM students out to Tijeras, raped them, and stabbed them leaving them to die, one of them survived.
Guzman was sentenced to death in 1982 but Governor Toney Anaya would later commute his sentence to life. Two weeks ago Guzman was moved from Santa Rosa to the prison in Clayton out of concerns for his safety.
“He had been there for one day, he was in the orientation pod when 15 other inmates assaulted him,” Shannon McReynolds with the Department of Corrections said.
The D.O.C. said all the inmates in the attack were new to the Clayton facility and didn’t know each other.
“Do you think his crime had anything to do with it or was it a separate issue?” News 13 Reporter Alex Tomlin asked McReynolds.
“At this point we don’t know, the investigation is ongoing,” he said.
Guzman has been at UNMH since the attack earlier this month.
“Currently he is unresponsive, that they (UNM Doctors) are doing test to determine the extent of damage that he suffered,” said McReynolds.
Guzman was up for parole in April but was denied. He’s now appealing his conviction saying he was drunk and wasn’t in his right mind the night of the kidnapping, and that was never told to the jurors at his trial.
Guzman married in prison and fathered four children. If doctors say he won’t recover it would be up to his family to decide if he should be kept alive.
Republished with permission from KRQE.com