Cuba man receives 4-year sentence for beating roommate to death with a baseball bat

  • Kimsey Barboan beat his roommate with a baseball bat and left him to die
  • The binding plea deal set his sentence at 4 years and he must serve 85 percent
  • Barboan already served 1.5 years while awaiting trial

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BERNALILLO, N.M. — A 35-year-old Cuba man received a four-year sentence, June 17, 2019, for beating to death his roommate with a baseball bat in 2017.

Kimsey Barboan

Kimsey Barboan pleaded guilty in Bernalillo District Court to charges of voluntary manslaughter, unlawful taking of a vehicle and DWI third offense.

According to court documents, Barboan beat Anthony Martinez, 61, of Cuba on Dec. 16, 2017, and left him for dead in their home, where he was discovered two days later by a friend who was looking for work.

District Court Judge Louis McDonald accepted the plea deal, signed by prosecutor Amy Lopez Dooling, which set Barboan’s sentence at four years followed by three-and-a-half years of supervised probation. McDonald sentenced Barboan the same day, according to the provisions of the plea deal.

Because of the time he already spent in custody (1.5 years), he only has to serve just over two years in prison.

According to the plea, Barboan’s killing of Martinez was done as “a result of sufficient provocation.” Court documents do not state what Martinez did to sufficiently provoke Barboan.

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Thomas Goodridge sentenced to 8 years for killing wife

  • Sentence was the maximum allowed under a plea deal

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BERNALILLO, N.M. — On July 30, 2019, District Court Judge Louis P. McDonald sentenced Thomas Goodridge, 74, to eight years in prison for killing his wife with a rock on April 22, 2017, according to court documents.

Thomas Goodridge

McDonald previously, on May 2, accepted a no contest plea from Goodridge that capped his maximum sentence at eight years and set a minimum of four years. That plea mandated that the rest of his sentence be suspended, in this case seven years, and he be placed on supervised probation for five years after he is released from prison. The judgement and sentence also states that he will be placed on parole for two years.

Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Second-degree murder is a serious violent offense which means he must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he can be released, compared to the 50 percent required for crimes that are not considered to be serious violent offenses.

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Dennis Lovato sentenced to 12 years for killing man on the Kewa Pueblo

The summary of the case

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On Oct. 24, 2013, Dennis Lovato pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for beating Joseph Melvin Lucero to death outside Lucero’s home.

Historic Kewa/Santo Domingo Indian Trading Post. Photo by Killbox/Flickr. CC BY-NC

In the binding plea, proffered by federal prosecutor Mark Baker and accepted by Federal Magistrate Judge Steven Yarbrough, Lovato received a 12-year sentence followed by five years of supervised release.

In his sentencing memorandum, Lovato’s attorney, John Moon Samore asked the judge to accept the plea and described the victim as a 61-year-old alcoholic bent on hurting Lovato.

“The Pre-Sentence Report fairly describes Mr. Lovato’s promising childhood, his disconcerting slide into youthful alcohol abuse, and his presence in the hours leading up to the fatal confrontation in the company of two middle-aged, severe alcoholics with long criminal histories,” Samore wrote.  “Whatever the precipitating factor, Mr. Lovato wound up in a ‘fight for his life’ with yet another middle-aged alcoholic, who was bent on hurting Mr. Lovato. Mr. Lucero’s extensive criminal history and violent past is fairly summarized in the PSR and Addendum. Mr. Lovato eventually overwhelmed Mr. Lucero, and the evidence indicated he administered more blows than necessary to defend himself.”

Baker wrote his own sentencing memorandum, asking the judge to accept the plea.

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