By Scott Sandlin
Albuquerque Journal
BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. — Michael Paul Astorga, who faces either life imprisonment or the death penalty for the murder of Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy James McGrane Jr., is still working off internal discipline imposed for misconduct in prison while his case has been pending.
Since his arrest in 2006 on the McGrane murder charges, Astorga has logged 20 disciplinary write-ups and been found guilty by a hearing officer of all but one, which was dismissed. The hearing officer’s ruling is appealable to the prison warden.
About half of Astorga’s offenses are classified as major violations of prison policy and the other half as minor, according to a disciplinary history provided by the Department of Corrections.
In 2009, a prison hearing officer found Astorga guilty of battery, failure to follow published rules, unauthorized use of institutional equipment and tattooing or possession of tattoo paraphernalia.
The battery charge resulted from Astorga spitting on an officer after Astorga “became angry about order in which he was being taken back from recreation toward his cell.” He was placed in disciplinary segregation for 30 days for that violation.
Astorga had no disciplinary actions in 2010, the year in which he went to trial in Albuquerque on the guilt phase of the McGrane murder case. He was convicted by a jury of shooting McGrane during a traffic stop.
Astorga logged one infraction in 2011 while at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, where he is a Level 6 inmate, even though technically considered a pre-trial prisoner, according to Corrections spokesman Shannon McReynolds.
Level 6 is the highest security classification, with some 381 male and female prisoners placed in that category, McReynolds said.
The 2011 violation, possession or use of dangerous drugs, resulted from urine tests that showed the presence of opiates. Astorga was placed in disciplinary segregation for 90 days, lost visitation rights for 90 days and had his recreation privileges cut by several days a week for a 60-day period.
Astorga has maintained he is innocent of the murder and in fact was elsewhere at the time McGrane pulled over a pickup in the East Mountains on a traffic violation and was fatally shot in the chin at close range in March 2006.
He was captured in Mexico.
The death penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 12, but Astorga’s attorney, Gary Mitchell, has asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to allow him to argue during the penalty phase of trial that his client is innocent and that since the state has repealed the death penalty, it should not be imposed on Astorga.
The Supreme Court has the matter under consideration, a clerk said Tuesday.
Mitchell also has been critical of the internal processes of the prison, which he says are controlled by prison officials. But McReynolds said prisoners can file federal lawsuits, “so ultimately these things are reviewable by the courts.”
Copyright 2011 Albuquerque Journal