A New Mexico woman who reported that her husband stabbed himself has now been charged — with allegedly stabbing her husband.

In a Facebook post on April 1, the Farmington Police Department announced that following a years-long investigation into the death of Robert Hoefer, 49, his wife, Heather Fernandez-Hoefer, 51, has been charged with his murder.

Police said that on November 29, 2020, officers responded to the Hoefer residence after Fernandez-Hoefer called 911 after she allegedly claimed she found her husband unresponsive. When questioned by police at the time, she allegedly said he had stabbed himself, repeating the story several times, according to an affidavit obtained by KRQE, a local CBS affiliate.

Her story, according to police, eventually fell apart due to her own conflicting statements.

1. Home
2. Daily News
3. Allegations that murder defendant was ‘a…

Criminal Justice

Allegations that murder defendant was ‘a drug ho’ who practiced witchcraft leads to tossed conviction

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 25, 2025, 9:15 am CST

The New Mexico Supreme Court has overturned a woman’s 2022 murder conviction and barred a retrial because of “severe and pervasive prosecutorial misconduct, exacerbated by a lackluster defense.”

The state supreme court tossed the conviction and the case against Desiree Lensegrav, concluding in a Feb. 20 opinion that her “entire trial was filled with theatrics, hyperbole and disparaging inflammatory statements.”

In his opening statement, the prosecutor called Lensegrav “a worthless mother” and “a drug ho—not my words!” the opinion said. During the trial, the prosecution called a witness who accused Lensegrav of witchcraft. In closing statements, the prosecutor encouraged jurors to convict Lensegrav “for the stench of death that permeated this courtroom.”

The prosecutor was referring to the introduction of “foul-smelling” physical evidence that was attached to the victim’s body, which caused a trial adjournment.

The Legal Profession Blog posted highlights from the opinion, while the Taos News and KOB had coverage. The state supreme court also issued a Feb. 20 press release.

The opinion identified the lead prosecutor as Assistant District Attorney Cosme Ripol of the Eighth Judicial District in New Mexico. He will not be commenting in response to an ABA Journal request, according to the district office manager.

Eighth Judicial District Attorney Marcus J. Montoya issued a statement.

“Though we prepared fully to present this case at trial, secured a conviction and would have preferred to keep this truly bad actor in prison, we accept the opinion of the supreme court, and we will always learn and evolve so as to continually improve,” Montoya said.

Lensegrav’s husband, Aram Montoya, pleaded guilty to murder in the killing in 2021 and received a life sentence. In his opening statement, Ripol told jurors about Aram Montoya’s statements incriminating Lensegrav, even though he was not on the prosecution witness list.

Referring to Lensegrav, Ripol said jurors will hear a story “of a strong, smart, determined, manipulative, vengeful, capable, controlling, resilient, cunning human being with a profound drug problem” who used her “needy, insecure” husband to commit murder.

Ripol also told jurors about expected testimony from the owner of a drug house. The owner would testify that Lensegrav suggested on several occasions that she was a witch, and she “would put menstrual blood concoctions” in her husband’s food to control him, Ripol said. The owner saw Lensegrav’s eyes turn “black. With fury. And rage,” Ripol said. “And it was like a Hollywood movie. He could feel the wind coming out of her.”

Lensegrav and Aram Montoya became suspects in 2020 after Aram Montoya was accused of trying to kill Lensegrav by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck and back with a paring knife. After Lensegrav came out of a medically induced coma, police gave her a Miranda warning and began to question her about the 2019 murder of Joseph Morgas. Police told Lensegrav that her husband had confessed to the murder, and her husband had thrown her “under the bus.”

Lensegrav told police that she wanted Aram Montoya to beat up Morgas because of his statements at the drug house. Morgas was a relative of a man who raped and impregnated Lensegrav when she was a teenager.

Lensegrav said Morgas laughed at her, called her a drug whore, and said she deserved to be raped. He also said he had video of Lensegrav at the drug house, and he would share it with his family, so they could get custody of her child.

Aram Montoya and Morgas fought outside the drug house, Lensegrav told police. Aram Montoya put Morgas in a headlock and “choked him out,” causing him to turn purple and go limp, she said. Lensegrav said she helped dispose of the body, fearing that Aram Montoya would kill her, too, if she didn’t cooperate.

Ripol told jurors that Lensegrav had confessed to strangling Morgas with twine, directed her husband to burn the body and to cut off Morgas’ head with a shovel, and had thrown the shovel and head in the river.

“None of these allegations would conform to the evidence,” the New Mexico Supreme Court said.

“Inexplicably,” the state supreme court said, “defense counsel did not object to the vast majority of instances of prosecutorial misconduct that defendant identifies on appeal.”

The New Mexico Supreme Court concluded that the prosecutorial misconduct was so unfairly prejudicial that it presented a double jeopardy bar to a retrial under the New Mexico Constitution.

“Prosecutors are held to the highest ethical standards in all courtrooms, and any time that standard is not maintained, reversal and this type of circumstance is the result. Like many trials get, this case became emotionally charged,” Montoya said in his statement to the Journal.

“Fortunately, the person we know was physically guilty of taking Mr. Morgas’ life is still in prison, and he will stay there,” Montoya said.

Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.

Witness and police video shows a man acting out at a gas station before striking a cop car with his vehicle, driving off, and fleeing futilely into a restaurant.

The suspect, Jordon Vasquez, 34, is currently locked up in the Bernalillo County Jail in New Mexico for armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, and resisting, evading, or obstructing an officer.

In the witness footage from Feb. 7 in Albuquerque, an exasperated employee of the gas station apparently spoke to authorities over the phone offscreen. She said the suspect struck two homeless people with his hands.

More Law&Crime coverage: Mom accidentally shot to death by 2-year-old son with gun that was ‘negligently’ stored, police say

“He’s sitting out there nonchalant like nothing happened,” she said, describing the suspect sitting in a vehicle, his feet up, in the middle of the parking lot.

She said that the man had been trying to get cigarettes, although he did not have money.

“And he was like, ‘I don’t have money. I don’t have ID,” and he went to grab the cigarettes from the counter, and I was quick enough to swipe them back, and he was like, ‘girl, don’t make me go back there,”” she described.

A man from New Mexico who admitted to smoking meth and marijuana before he crashed through a home, killing a grandfather sitting in a recliner watching TV, will spend 10 years in prison.

Mark Castello, 63, learned his fate on Wednesday in the death of Brian Peterson, 74. Castello pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle.

“F–k that! Just kill me now!” a murder suspect told cops as they had him handcuffed on the floor of a Walmart this summer.

Cops in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said that the defendant Jamil Lewis, had been caught attempting to shoplift a holster from the store on July 29, according to The Albuquerque Journal. He allegedly slipped a gun into it, and then put it into his waistband. Weeks earlier on June 8, Lewis, had shot and killed Gerald Ibuado, 44, and injured the man’s brother, police said.

Body camera video obtained by Law&Crime shows police rushing over to Lewis at the superstore on July 29 and giving chase as he — wearing a red “Chucky”-themed sweatshirt and shorts — ran off.

 

“Hey, stop running!” said the officer. “I’m going to shoot you!”

Lewis eventually stopped and lay prone. The ensuing arrest is somewhat chaotic, as he tenses up and yells as three officers manhandle him into handcuffs. He questions why they are detaining him and complains about them searching him in the store, preferring it outside.

“Why?” an officer asked rhetorically. “So you can run?”

More Law&Crime Coverage: ‘I took a lot of s—‘: Woman arrested after shoplifting more than $1K from Walmart as part of ‘game,’ deputies say

“I’m not going to run,” he said. “You guys already got me in handcuffs.”

That is all timed at about 1:30 p.m. The tone changed less than an hour later. Footage shows a decidedly calmer Lewis sitting in the back of a police vehicle, handcuffed and smoking with police help.

 

Lewis lamented his situation.

“It’s going to affect my son,” he said in the video. “It’s going to affect my mom.”

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

A federal court of appeals on Tuesday denied a prominent Jan. 6 defendant’s effort to overturn his misdemeanor trespass conviction.

In March 2022, Couy Griffin, the founder of “Cowboys for Trump” and a former New Mexico county commissioner, was convicted on one count of entering a restricted area on the Capitol grounds and acquitted on one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building. The bench trial was overseen by Donald Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden.

On the day of the riot, Griffin made his way into a restricted area that had been cordoned off and closed to the public in order to protect then-Vice President Mike Pence as he waited to oversee vote tallies.

In determining the defendant’s guilt, the lower court judge said Griffin “certainly knew he shouldn’t be there” and “yet, he remained.”

A 33-year-old ex-con and fugitive accused of killing a paramedic in South Carolina and a New Mexico police officer was caught when a suspicious gas station checking his ID called the police.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office-South Carolina said 17 arrest warrants were issued for Jaremy Smith in the kidnapping and murder of paramedic, wife, and mother, Phonesia Machado-Fore, authorities said in a news release. He’s also accused of killing New Mexico State Police Officer Justin Hare, federal officials said.

1. Home
2. Daily News
3. Wells Fargo’s ‘willful blindness’ enabled…

Banking Law

Wells Fargo’s ‘willful blindness’ enabled former lawyer’s fraud, victims’ suit alleges

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 7, 2024, 8:54 am CST

Updated: A former San Antonio lawyer was able to steal millions of dollars from his clients because of Wells Fargo’s “avarice and greed” and “intentional disregard of banking regulations,” according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

Wells Fargo Bank allowed now-convicted lawyer Christopher John Pettit of San Antonio, who was identified as a high net-worth customer, to open a New Mexico lawyer’s trust account, even though he was not licensed in the state, according to a victims’ suit filed in federal court in the Western District of Texas.

After the New Mexico account remained dormant for four years, Wells Fargo went on to accept tens of millions of dollars of deposits starting in April 2021. The funds were then commingled and dissipated, the suit says, as money was withdrawn in cash, transferred to Pettit’s personal accounts, used to pay Pettit’s mortgage held with Wells Fargo, transferred to another bank, and sent to a PayPal account regularly used to buy video games.

Wells Fargo disregarded its policies, federal banking regulations and New Mexico law regulating trust accounts, according to allegations in the suit. The bank’s conduct “viewed in the best light constitutes grossly negligent willful blindness,” the suit says.

Wells Fargo looked the other way, the suit says, “because Pettit showed great potential for running millions, if not billions of dollars through the accounts he controlled at Wells Fargo.”

Law360 covered the suit.

Pettit was sentenced to 50 years in prison in February for engaging in a “Ponzi-type scheme” that resulted in an estimated loss to his victims of between $20 million and $65 million.

Pettit obtained money from clients that he promised to use for trust accounts, bond investments and like-kind property exchanges. He then used the money to pay client debt and to support his “extravagant lifestyle,” prosecutors said.

Pettit gave up his law license in 2022 and filed for bankruptcy the same year.

The plaintiffs in the Wells Fargo suit are four people and a living trust who say their total loss was more than $5.2 million. In a footnote, the suit says Pettit opened more than 150 bank accounts across the country, but “this tale involves only those accounts located at Wells Fargo.”

The suit alleges knowing participation in breach of fiduciary duty, knowing participation in the perpetration of fraud, negligence and gross negligence, and violation of the Texas Theft Liability Act.

Wells Fargo gave this statement to the ABA Journal: “It is unfortunate that Mr. Pettit engaged in fraudulent conduct, but Wells Fargo is not responsible for his actions and intends to defend against this litigation.”

The suit is Verstuyft v. Wells Fargo Bank.

Updated March 7 at 11:25 a.m. to add the statement by Wells Fargo.

A manhunt is underway for a 32-year-old ex-con suspected of killing a paramedic in South Carolina and driving her car to New Mexico, where he shot an officer who had responded to help him with his flat tire on the side of a road.

Jaremy Smith is wanted in the killing of New Mexico State Police Officer Justin Hare, authorities said. Police are also investigating him in the death of paramedic Phonesia Machado-Fore, whose body was found on Friday after she had been reported missing by family, according to South Carolina’s Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

“Jaremy Smith, we are coming for you. I implore you to turn yourself in and surrender peacefully,” New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said in a news conference. “There is nowhere he can run. There’s nowhere he can hide where we will not find him.”