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Thursday, April 3, 2008

Letters to the Editor

By

    Victim's Widow Is
    Waiting for Justice
    JUDGE MICHAEL E. VIGIL IS A DISGRACE to the judicial system of New Mexico and Santa Fe. Judge Michael E. Vigil handed down a less than four-year sentence to Lyle Strong, who was convicted by the jury of second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
    By law, in New Mexico, Lyle Strong faced 181/2 years in prison. After going through complete hell, through the ugly trial in which my husband, Dan, and my privacy and civil rights were trampled all over, and the weakness of some jury members lessened the indictment of first-degree murder down to second-degree murder, then the long wait for the sentencing hearing, when Judge Vigil had the audacity to lecture me, Dan's mother, and the Martinez family to think of the good times with Dan, not seeing him lying face down, dead, with a gunshot in his back.
    Vigil "shot me in the back" with this comment, and then dropped the bomb in court that Lyle Strong would receive only six years in prison, which amounts to less than four after his 20 months in jail, and good time they automatically give the murderer. Then he fled out the back door, gone, just like that.
    The grief of losing my husband of 30 years, by hearing gunshots and finding him on our property face down dead with a gunshot in his back, has been a long journey of pain, sorrow, despair, and loneliness. But as if that was not enough, adding insult to injury, the district attorney told me to put my trust in the system, that justice would be served in this case, as it was clear cut from the beginning. He said the investigators did a flawless job, the grand jury indicted Lyle Strong for first-degree murder. Then the trial became a Kangaroo Court, where I, the survivor of the homicide, tried to tell Dan's story, Dan couldn't tell his side, because Lyle Strong made sure of that.
    My hands were tied during the trial and I wasn't allowed to have any character witnesses for Dan. I was told that they were going to try the case on the pure evidence of what happened on that day and the 911 call, in which, Lyle Strong implicated "it's a good thing I had my gun," he stepped from a public road, from his truck, onto our property, and gunned down Dan, firing at least three shots, shooting him in the back. Dan was unarmed, and never had a gun, but the defense was allowed witnesses who weren't even there that day, and had nothing to do with the murder.
    The Santa Fe judicial system has failed me, and Judge Michael E. Vigil failed me and our family. Injustice is what he gave us, and did it with a callousness and disregard for us as victims. Therefore, I have no closure for this tragedy, and Vigil had the audacity to tell me, Dan's mother, and the Martinez family to move on.
    Judge Vigil should be impeached. He insulted the victims, law enforcement, and even the jury, who did convict Lyle Strong of murder, but all that hard work for justice, and my hope that the system would work, amounted to a heap of nothing when Judge Vigil handed down the weak sentence to a murderer.
    So, beware hardworking, taxpaying, law abiding citizens of New Mexico. The judicial system in Santa Fe, and all over New Mexico, is a sham, and cold-blooded killers are walking among us. In my grief journey, I have encountered some of the kindest people, and I have found out who my true friends are, and those who are not; they haven't been there. Dan and I have been slandered in the worst kind of way, when the murderer was treated with respect, regard, and pampered throughout the whole process. I have also encountered vicious people, who have said ugly things to me. I have felt all along like Dan and I were on trial, instead of the murderer. Our private life has become public, my husband is gone, but there are others who have tried to crush me, as well, to take me down, also. That is the truth of the matter.
    I loved my husband and there will never be anyone like him, again, in my life. It's an atrocity that no witnesses were allowed to come forth and mention how Dan had pulled them out of the mud, how Dan had helped build the road, how Dan gave trees to a couple of his neighbors, how Dan told the children on horses to watch out for snakes, how Dan was always working and improving our place; he was working well inside our property when he was gunned down.
    I love you, Dan. My sorrow never leaves me, so if you read this, and want to be vicious against me, do the Christian thing and keep it to yourself, and be a good neighbor, don't speed on a road that neighbors have put their own money and work into, don't throw empty whisky bottles on other people's land, and don't let your dogs bark incessantly from 1 a.m. to 3 or 4 in the morning, so your neighbors can't sleep. And don't gun your neighbor down and shoot him in the back, because there are people that love that person and will also get hurt, irreparably. The system is corrupt. You can't count on it for justice.
    Remove Judge Vigil from the bench. And, watch your back.
    GAIL MARTINEZ
    Stanley