CARRIZOZO, N.M. — A District Court judge sentenced Andrew Magill to 45 years in prison followed by five years of supervised probation, Sept. 6, 2019, for nearly decapitating a woman at a Glencoe ranch in April 2017 and shooting a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy after trying to turn himself in to police.
Andrew Magill
Magill had previously pleaded guilty on May 22, 2019, to charges of second-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony against an officer and felon in possession of a firearm. District Court Judge Daniel Bryant accepted his plea and entered the sentence. He suspended six years of his sentence and if he violates his probation after being released, he could be sentenced to the remaining six years.
According to the Ruidoso News, a psychiatrist hired by prosecutors found Magill killed Mary Ann Moorehouse during a “drug-induced psychosis.” Sugg said during a press conference, after the plea hearing, that the psychiatrist was paid $100,000.
On April 1, 2017, Andrew Magill, 25, allegedly drove to the Coe Ranch, near Glencoe on U.S. Highway 70, and confronted Mary Ann Moorhouse, 61, who was helping take care of the property and Magill allegedly chopped her head off with an ax, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Andrew Magill
He then allegedly got a ride to the Ruidoso Downs Police Department, 10 miles down the road, from a passing motorist. There, he allegedly told officers he chopped a woman’s head off, he was Jesus, and his father was God, according to the affidavit.
He was then taken to the Lincoln County Medical Center where he got into a struggle with two deputies. Deputy Jason Green dropped his gun and Magill allegedly picked it up and shot him in the arm with it, according to court documents.
He was indicted on a single count of first-degree murder on April 10, 2017.
After being found competent to stand trial, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, on Nov. 15, 2017.
On May 23, 2019, he pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony on an officer and felon in possession of a firearm. According to the plea, he agreed that the basic sentences for each count would be increased by 1/3 for aggravating circumstances.
District Court Judge Daniel Bryant sentenced Magill to 45 years followed by five years of supervised probation. He faced a maximum sentence of 51 years.
Sanchez told dispatchers that he was out of town and he received a call from Mary Ann Moorhouse, 61, who said someone was on the property and he was going to investigate. He tried to call her several times thereafter, but was not able to get through.
“Lincoln County Deputies Anthony Manfredi and Charlie Evans responded to the Coe Ranch, to welfare check Ms. Moorhouse,” Christian wrote.
They found a white woman lying on the ground in front of one of the residences on the 260 acre property.
“The female had no signs of life, and her head had been almost completely severed,” Christian wrote. “An axe covered in blood was also observed on the ground near the body. Deputies also observed a cell phone on the ground near the body. Deputies Manfredi and Evans then backed away from the residence, and secured the scene.”
Resident Tim Huseman spoke to Christian and told him that he was in Lubbock, Texas, that Moorhouse should be the only person on the property and she did not know he was gone.
“Mr. Huseman said he feared Ms. Moorhouse may have gone to his residence while investigating the suspected intruder, assuming that Mr. Huseman was home,” Christian wrote.
After deputies secured the scene and started to apply for a search warrant, Christian learned that the suspect may have been at the Lincoln County Medical Center.
He had previously been dropped off at the Ruidoso Downs Police Department by a motorist who found him walking on U.S. Highway 70, 10 miles east of Ruidoso, near the ranch.
“It was later learned that Magill’s father had located Magill’s vehicle abandoned near the property and had driven it to the hospital,” Christian wrote.
Christian did not write what the alleged weapon used to kill Moorhouse was, nor did he write how it is thought she died, nor what she was decapitated with.
“Magill was very agitated and appeared to have dried blood on his hands,” Christian wrote. “Magill also had a laceration to his forehead.”
At the police department, Officers Carroll Scott and Charles Williams began talking to him, and then escorted him inside.
“Magill began ranting about being ‘Jesus’ and telling officers that his dad is ‘God,’ and he fought with ‘Satan,'” Christian wrote. “Magill said he had to ‘Kill a man’ and ‘chop a woman’s head off’ with an axe.'”
Because Magill was so agitated, officers called for an ambulance.
While at the hospital, Magill allegedly began to struggle with the deputies there to guard him.
“During the struggle, Deputy Jason Green’ s firearm fell to the ground and Magill retrieved the firearm and shot Deputy Green,” Christian wrote.
A Lincoln County grand jury indicted Andrew Magill on April 10, 2017, on a single count of first-degree murder for the death of Mary Ann Moorhouse.
Deputy Matt Christian was the only person to testify to the grand jury.
On that same day, District Attorney John Sugg filed a motion of intent to seek an alteration of the basic sentence for aggravating circumstances, which could increase the basic sentence by a third.
According to the Ruidoso News, Magill was found competent to stand trial on Nov. 15, 2017. He was arraigned that day and entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony on an officer or, in the alternative, aggravated battery on a peace officer
Felon in possession of a firearm
Plea and sentence
On May 22, 2019, Magill pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony on an officer and felon in possession of a firearm. District Court Judge Daniel Bryant accepted the plea.
As a part of the plea, he admitted he was convicted of drug trafficking on May 3, 2010, in case number D-504-CR-2009-00501, from a case in Chaves County.
The plea agreement states that Magill agreed that the basic sentence for each count would be increased by 1/3 for aggravating circumstances, but it also states there were no agreements as to sentencing and that the court was not bound to “those recommendations,” although it is not clear what recommendations the document is referring to.
The plea agreement also states the sentence for second-degree murder would be increased from 15 years to 20 years for aggravating circumstances, and an additional year added because of Magill’s prior trafficking conviction.
The two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony had their sentences increased from nine to 12 years, and increased by another two years for a firearms enhancement and the prior conviction.
The felon in possession of a firearm charged was increased to two years from 18 months.
The maximum sentence, under the plea, was 51 years.
According to the Ruidoso News, a psychiatrist hired by prosecutors found Magill killed Moorehouse during a “drug-induced psychosis.” Sugg said during a press conference, after the plea hearing, that the psychiatrist was paid $100,000.
Magill believed himself to be Jesus Christ and killed Moorehouse to save the world, Sugg said, according to the Ruidoso News.
In a press release dated May 23, 2019, Sugg wrote a long narrative outlining Magill’s movements and actions, which started on March 30, 2017, when he was staying at the Drury Hotel in Albuquerque with his wife and daughter. He began having hallucinations that he was being attacked by the devil and that he was Jesus Christ.
“Magill got into an altercation with a front desk employee at the hotel after losing his room key, and he threatened the employee before causing thousands of dollars of damage to the hotel,” Sugg wrote. “Magill retreated to his room where he quickly packed his family’s belongings and hurried his wife and daughter down the stairwell before police arrived.”
Magill started driving toward Roswell when he became convinced his luggage was cursed, stopped on the side of the road and threw out his family’s belongings. His hallucinations continued and he became convinced the world was ending and began threatening his wife and daughter. Once his wife had a chance to leave, she did and went to a relative’s house. Magill headed toward Ruidoso from Roswell and stopped at the Coe Ranch, he wrote.
After killing Moorehouse, he baptized himself in a creek and hitchhiked to the Ruidoso Downs Police Department and told them he kiled a man and chopped off a woman’s head with an axe to save the world. Officers transported him to the Lincoln County Medical Center for a mental health evaluation, Sugg wrote.
Stipulation of facts and aggravating circumstances
Impact on the families of Mary Ann Moorehouse and Jason Green
According to the stipulation of facts, Magill did not express remorse for either killing Moorehouse or shooting Green.
He told Dr. Michael Welner that his greatest regret was not being able to be with his daughter and never expressed remorse for his crimes in hundreds of hours of jail phone calls. When asked about significant painful experiences in his life, he did not mention these crimes as being among them. In his interview with Dr. Noah Kaufman, he could not remember Ms. Moorehouse’ s name and stated, “I was just really scared and desperate to end what I was going through. And I hoped she would have comforted me. But she didn’t. She was kind of standoffish and weird.”
The impact on Moorehouse’s family and on Green were profound. Green suffered “career-ending injuries” because of the attack and Moorehouse’s mother sufferes from short-term memory loss and can’t remember what happened to her daughter, according to the stipulation.
“Each time she forgets what happened to her daughter, her family has to tell her what happened and she has to relive learning about her daughter’s horrific death as if she was hearing it for the first time,” according to the stipulation.
Sentencing
Bryant Magill held sentencing hearings on Sept. 5 and 6, 2019 and, at the end, sentenced Magill to 45 years in prison followed by five years of supervised probation. (He sentenced Magill to 51 years but suspended six years.) If he violates his probation after being released, he could be sentenced to the remaining six years of his sentence.
All the crimes were considered serious violent offenses, meaning Magill must serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for release, or just over 38 years. However, he also received credit for over two years time served while awaiting trial.
According to a press release from Sugg, dated Sept. 6, 2019, Bryant considered Magill’s mental health to be a mitigating factor and wanted him to be supervised for longer after he is released from prison, and that was why he did not impose the maximum sentence.
Bryant wrote he recommended, under the special conditions of probation, that Magill be screened for a “treatment guardian.”
On March 25, 2017, Matthew Rodriguez, 34 at the time, allegedly stabbed his 64-year-old neighbor, Mitchell Daniel, in the chest repeatedly, compelled by the voices in his head. He allegedly admitted to stabbing the man, who appeared to be living in a van outside of Rodriguez’s apartment complex.
On Oct. 19 or Oct. 22, 2018, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for Daniel’s death and, per the plea deal accepted by Judge T. Glenn Ellington, he received a sentence of 10 years followed by five years of supervised probation.
The incident
On March 25, 2017, Matthew Rodriguez, 34 at the time, allegedly stabbed his 64-year-old neighbor, Mitchell Daniel, in the chest repeatedly, compelled by the voices in his head.
Although Daniel was transported after the stabbing to the hospital, he died from his injuries shortly thereafter.
Officers found four men at the scene when they arrived, including Rodriguez and took all four of them into custody.
After Rodriguez was put into the back of the police car, he allegedly started punching himself in the face. After being handcuffed, he then allegedly started banging his head on the divider in the police unit. He was taken to the Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for his head injury.
“While in the emergency room at the hospital being treated by the attending physician and nursing staff Matthew Rodriguez made a statement ‘how’s the fuck I stabbed doing’? and ‘I called 911 about the stabbing; I didn’t realize that I did it,” Trujillo wrote. “These statements were heard by attending physician and nursing staff.”
At the police department, Trujillo talked to Gary Brown, who described himself as an acquaintance and told Trujillo that he was one of the people who called 911.
“Mr. Brown was at the apartment with Matthew Rodriguez approximately one hour prior to making the 911 emergency call. Mr. Brown stated Matthew Rodriguez suddenly told him ‘you need to leave,’ and ‘fucking neighbor,'” Trujillo wrote. “Mr. Brown told Affiant Matthew Rodriguez is schizophrenic and hears voices in his head. Mr. Brown told Affiant this was not unusual to him because Matthew Rodriguez on other occasions had told him ‘you need to leave’ for no reason at all.”
He gathered his belongings and left the apartment. While outside, he heard someone yelling to call 911 and he went up to the apartment and saw Daniel lying on the ground, bleeding.
“Mr. Brown called 911,” Trujillo wrote. “Mr. Brown also told Affiant that Matthew Rodriguez always carries a kitchen knife with him.”
While Rodriguez was being held at the police department, an officer walked up and asked if he wanted a cup of water.
“Matthew Rodriguez responded ‘the person that I stabbed,
what’s going on with him?'” Trujillo wrote.
Later on, Rodriguez was interviewed and he agreed to waive his Miranda rights.
“In this statement Matthew Rodriguez admitted to stabbing Mitchell Daniel,” Trujillo wrote. “Matthew Rodriguez stated he did not mean to kill him, saying ‘I was just angry at the voices in my head.'”
He allegedly described the knife as being nine inches long with a black handle and he allegedly threw it into the sink after the stabbing, Trujillo wrote.
“Matthew Rodriguez stated he stabbed Mitchell Daniel inside Mitchell Daniel’s van which Mitchell Daniel had been living out of and parked in the driveway of 1713 Fifth Street,” Trujillo wrote.
On May 5, 2017, a notice was filed that Rodriguez’s competency was in question and on July 5, 2017, Ellington suspended the proceedings.
On Feb. 9, 2018, Rodriguez’s attorney withdrew the question of his competency and filed a notice that Rodriguez would plead not guilty by reason of insanity and an incapacity to form specific intent.
On April 17, 2018, prosecutors filed a motion to have Rodriguez moved from the Santa Fe Detention Center to the custody of the Department of Corrections, as well as a motion to close the courtroom to hear the motion.
On April 24, 2018, the Santa Fe Reporter published an article by Justin Horwath about Rodriguez’s confinement in the Santa Fe Detention Center and his extensive stay in solitary confinement.
According to the article, on Sept. 21, 2017, Rodriguez attacked two separate inmates, who declined to press charges against him.
First Judicial District Judge T. Glenn Ellington
“A corrections officer wrote in an incident report that Rodriguez said he assaulted the two inmates because they ‘are mind-control freaks,'” Horwath wrote.
On Sept. 21, 2018, prosecutors and the defense reached an agreement for a plea deal. That plea deal was signed by Ellington on Oct. 19, 2018 although the docket states the hearing took place on Oct. 22.
During that hearing, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
According to the plea deal, which Ellington accepted, Rodriguez will spend 10 years in prison, sans credit for time served. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence.
Ellington, acting according to the plea deal, sentenced Rodriguez to a total of 15 years, but suspended five and ordered that they be served on intensive supervised probation.
According to the judgement and sentence, Ellington ordered that the Department of Corrections place Rodriguez in “an appropriate Mental Health Unit where Defendant’s medical regimen can be fulfilled by the New Mexico Department of Corrections” and receive his required medication and mental health treatment.
Charges: First-degree murder, shooting at or from a vehicle causing great bodily harm or death, tampering with evidence, receiving stolen property: a firearm
Status: No contest plea to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and receiving a stolen firearm
On Jan. 29, 2012, Bobby Smith, 24, of Artesia, allegedly walked up to security guard Michael Evans, 24, of Artesia, after he failed to sneak up on him, and shot him in the left side of the head with a revolver armed with shotgun shells.
Bobby Smith
Smith’s neighbors reported hearing shooting earlier in the evening and described Smith as wearing the same clothing that the assailant was, based on surveillance footage.
On Jan. 30, 2012, Smith was arrested on an outstanding warrant.
Prosecutors filed a criminal information charging Smith with first-degree murder, shooting at or from a motor vehicle causing death, tampering with evidence and receiving stolen property on Oct. 27, 2015.
On Oct. 12, 2016, Smith’s attorney, Gary Mitchell, filed a notice of incompetency for Smith, based on a report by Dr. Eric Westfried. On April 3, 2018, he was found competent to stand trial, and again on Nov. 14, 2018.
On April 2, 2019, prosecutors filed an amended complaint charging him with second-degree murder, in addition to the other charges.
Security guard Michael Evans, 24, was patrolling, Jan. 29, 2015, around 105 South 4th Street in Artesia when he noticed someone was trying to sneak up on him.
Sculpture in Artesia, NM. Photo by Justin Miller/Flickr. CC BY-NC
“Evans stated he lost sight with the male subject but then stated the subject was heading towards him,” Rodriguez wrote. “While talking with dispatch, the telephone conversation was terminated.
Sgt. Christopher Boor told Rodriguez that when he got into the area, he saw Evans’ work truck had crashed into a building in the alley between 4th and 5th streets.
“Sgt. Boor reported he approached the truck and observed a male subject inside the truck in the driver’s seat with an apparent gun-shot wound to the head,” Rodriguez wrote. “Sgt. Boor notified dispatch and requested EMS.”
Detective Tim Argo told Rodriguez he viewed the security cameras from the Yates Petroleum Building and saw Evans’ truck drive east down the alley while a person wearing blue jeans, a green sweater and a blue bandanna over his face walked toward the truck.
Rodriguez did not specify how Argo was able to determine colors from footage taken outside at night.
“The subject raised their left hand towards the Dodge pickup and walked up to the driver’s side window while at the same time pulling an item that appears to be a chrome or nickel in color handgun from the right front of the subject’s pants and point the handgun at Michael Evans,” he wrote. “The subject then ran west bound down the alley out of the camera’s view.”
Evans’ truck then, as seen in surveillance footage, crashed into a post. Officers arrived two minutes later and found Evans, shot in the left side of the head and his left arm.
“The gunshot wound on his left arm entered and exited,” Rodriguez wrote. “In the wound was a clear plastic object that appeared to be wadding from a .410 caliber shotgun shell.”
Earlier in the day, Officer Gracie Gonzales was dispatched to 9th and Texas streets because someone reported shots had been fired. She told Rodriguez that she walked to multiple tenants in the area, Rodriguez wrote.
“Melissa and Alice Duncan told Officer Gonzales after they heard 4 or 5 shots and they came out of their apartment to see what was going on, and they saw tenant Bobby Smith walking back into his house hunched over as if he was trying to conceal something,” Rodriguez wrote. “Melissa Duncan told Officer Gonzales Bobby Smith left his residence on January 29, 2012 between 2200 (10 p.m.) and 2230 (10:30 p.m.).”
Karla Parada told Gonzales that she also heard five or six shots. She immediately dropped to the ground.
Later in the night, Parada allegedly saw Smith allegedly walking away from his apartment between 9 and 9:36 p.m. He was wearing a green sweater with a design on the front and a black bandanna on his head, the alleged description of the assailant from the surveillance footage.
She saw him standing by her truck, looking inside, before he walked down Texas Street.
Marcos Herrera said Smith asked him for a cigarette earlier in the evening and they smoked together.
“(While they were smoking, Smith told Herrera if he needed anyone taken care of, he would shoot them. Herrera then ended the conversation,” he wrote.
On Jan. 30, 2015, Smith was arrested on an outstanding warrant.
On Jan. 31, detectives and officers executed a search warrant on Smith’s apartment in the 900 block of West Texas Street. In the apartment, they allegedly found clothing that matched the suspect’s clothing.
To get into the house, they had to break the back door open because the manager did not have a key. Smith had been arrested the previous day on a warrant.
In the apartment, they found .45 caliber casings and live .410 shotgun shells and a chrome Taurus Judge revolver in the ceiling of the bedroom.
“The a nickel or chrome colored Taurus Judge revolver with black grips that is capable of using .45 Long Colt bullets and .410 shotgun shells,” Rodriguez wrote. “A copy of the lease agreement was obtained and it stated Bobby Smith was the tenant of the apartment.”
The pathologist, who conducted the autopsy on Evans, confirmed that it was a .410 shotgun shell that killed him.
That gun had been reported as stolen on Sept. 19, 2011, from a truck parked in the 700 block of West Quay in Artesia. The truck owner told police someone broke the front windshield of his 2011 Ford with a big rock and stole the Taurus revolver, capable of shooting .45 bullets or .410 shotgun shells.
When police checked serial numbers, they found the gun found in the ceiling allegedly matched the serial number of the one that had been stolen.
A past address for Smith showed he lived in the 600 block of West Quay, a block away from the theft.
On June 15, 2015, Rodriguez arrested Smith on a warrant charging an open count of murder. Below is the statement of probable cause for his arrest.
Competency in question
On Oct. 27, 2015, prosecutors filed criminal information charging Smith with:
First-degree murder
Shooting at or from a vehicle causing great bodily harm or death
Tampering with evidence
Receiving stolen property: a firearm
The information was filed after Smith’s lawyer waived a preliminary hearing.
Bobby Smith
On April 19, 2015, Smith was present for a competency hearing, according to an order for continued care and treatment.
District Judge Jane Shuler-Gray found Smith, in a Jan. 4, 2016 order, competent to proceed in the criminal case, but found that Smith needed continued care and treatment at the New Mexico Behavior Health Institute, which agreed to provide him care
On Oct. 12, 2016, Smith’s lawyer, Gary Mitchell, filed a notice of incompetency, based on consultation with Dr. Eric Westfried, who twice examined Smith.
Smith is incompetent to stand trial because he could not cooperate with or assist his attorney, Mitchell wrote.
“Dr. Westfried reports his absence of cooperation was similar to that experienced in 2012, being the product of a severe mental disorder,” Mitchell wrote. “During 2012, Dr. Westfried had suspected a psychosis that would have been part of a schizophrenia disorder, and his being observed at the state hospital forensic division confirmed that suspicion.”
Smith, as of Mitchell’s Oct. 12, 2016 motion, was no longer on his medication.
“Records from the state hospital indicate that when he was not taking antipsychotic medication, he was not capable of proceeding on his charges,” Mitchell wrote. “Once he was stabilized on the psychotropic medication, it was then the opinion of the state hospital examiner that he was capable of proceeding. In Dr. Westfried’s opinion, his refusal to take medication at the present time has resulted in recurring signs and symptoms of psychosis. Consequently, he is not capable of rationally assisting in his defense.”
Smith had previously been sent to the New Mexico Corrections Department in March 2017 after the Eddy County Detention Center found they were not capable of safely housing him.
On Oct. 12, 2016, Smith’s attorney, Gary Mitchell, filed a notice of incompetency for smith, based on a report by Westfried. On April 3, 2018, he was found competent to stand trial, and again on Nov. 14, 2018.
No-contest plea
On April 2, 2019, prosecutors filed an amended complaint charging him with second-degree murder, in addition to the other charges.
On May 6, 2019, he pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and receiving a stolen firearm. The plea states the prosecution would argue for a sentence of seven to 13 years, although it is not clear if that was binding on the judge. Shuler-Gray accepted his plea and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.
