By James Staley
Las Cruces Sun-News
LAS CRUCES — A man awaiting sentencing for a murder conviction cut himself with a razor blade Friday afternoon then had to be forcibly removed from a court holding cell by a special response team and rushed to a hospital.
Dominic Martin Montoya, 38, cut his arms and neck, 3rd Judicial District Judge Douglas R. Driggers said, and he was taken to University Medical Center in El Paso.
No information was available on his condition late Friday.
An investigation on how Montoya obtained the razor blade is being conducted by the New Mexico Corrections Department and Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office, corrections spokeswoman Alex Tomlin said.
Corrections department personnel transported Montoya from the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility west of Las Cruces, where he is serving a lengthy sentence for other crimes, to the district courthouse Friday morning.
Prior to transport, Tomlin said, inmates are required to be strip searched, a process that includes an examination of body cavities. Montoya has been segregated from the prison’s population, a designation that has him under more extensive monitoring, Tomlin said.
Inmates typically arrive at the courthouse in shackles and handcuffs, DASO spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said. Further, they can be patted down at any time by court security officers, all certified deputies.
Montoya attended a motion hearing Friday morning, then was sent into the court’s holding cell. About half an hour before the 2:30 p.m. sentencing, a court security officer said over the radio that Montoya had cut himself.
Friday’s incident was the latest in a series of unusual twists in the case that began in April 2006 when Montoya killed 29-year-old Adam Avalos, then a fellow detainee at the Doña Ana County Detention Center, with a jail-issued razor, authorities said.
Bizarre behavior
In September 2012, Montoya was scheduled to appear in court for a change-of-plea hearing in the matter. But that never happened because Montoya refused to get dressed, showing up in boxer shorts. He also bashed his head on the court’s holding cell wall, injuring himself, according to Sun-News archives.
Montoya has gone through several defense attorneys, and previously refused a mental health evaluation by one of his attorneys in 2006. In 2007, he was deemed competent to stand trial.
“Dominic’s message in this entire thing is that the Department of Corrections is wholly inadequate when it comes to mental health,” said Todd Holmes, Montoya’s court-appointed defense attorney. “This is more than just trying to get a attention.”
Tomlin said because of his classification, Montoya had daily access to physicians and mental health professionals.
Friday was not the first time Montoya was scheduled to be sentenced.
He appeared in court for that Aug. 6. That was pushed back because Montoya denied a 1999 Albuquerque murder conviction.
“I didn’t do that stuff,” Montoya said then, discussing the 1999 charge court records show he had pleaded guilty to. “I don’t know where they got that.”
Prosecutors presented that part of Montoya’s extensive criminal history to the court hoping to add two years to his possible maximum sentence. Typically defendants admit to relevant prior convictions.
Included in Montoya’s criminal history: robbery, breaking and entering, evidence tampering among other charges. He was being held at the county jail in 2006 awaiting trial for robbery (he was convicted in that case too).
Last June a jury convicted Montoya of second-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon by a prisoner in connection to Avalos’ death.
Authorities had charged Montoya with first-degree murder in that case, alleging that he planned the killing. But Montoya pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying he was distraught over his girlfriend and had gone that day into the jail shower to cut himself.
That’s when Avalos, Montoya testified, told him, “f*** that b*****, she’s not worth it.”
Montoya testified that he “exploded” but didn’t recall the details of the attack.
Even before the 2006 murder conviction is considered, Montoya won’t be eligible for parole until July 2045, said Tomlin,
The court hasn’t scheduled his sentencing. But, whenever it happens, Driggers ruled that it can go on without Montoya, as a special rule allows.
“Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated in the future,” Driggers said.
Tomlin said that Montoya is in Corrections Department custody while hospitalized. She noted six guards will be with him, a significant increase from the usual two.