{"id":13973,"date":"2026-01-14T17:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/attorney-argues-meth-use-bars-first-degree-murder-charges-in-bloomfield-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:45","slug":"attorney-argues-meth-use-bars-first-degree-murder-charges-in-bloomfield-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/attorney-argues-meth-use-bars-first-degree-murder-charges-in-bloomfield-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney argues meth use bars first-degree murder charges in Bloomfield case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Isaiah
Isaiah Brown<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An Albuquerque defense attorney argues that Isaiah Brown should not face first-degree murder charges because, under the legal defense of \u201cinability to form specific intent,\u201d Brown could not deliberately or consciously intend to commit the crimes due to methamphetamine intoxication.<\/p>\n

This argument comes from attorney Marcus Cameron, who represents Brown in the Aug. 28, 2024, double homicide of Stoney Torres, 25, and Jessica Aragon, 28, in Bloomfield.<\/p>\n

Brown is charged with 14 felonies, including two first-degree murder counts for allegedly shooting Torres and Aragon over $80 and fentanyl.<\/p>\n

Additional charges of armed robbery, motor vehicle theft, two aggravated assaults on police officers and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon stem from his alleged flight in a stolen car, hiding in a Kirtland home and shooting at law enforcement officers during an attempted arrest.<\/p>\n

Cameron disclosed the defense during a Nov. 10, 2025, status conference before 11th Judicial District Judge Stephen Wayne.<\/p>\n

Cameron said he would file a \u201cwritten motion to allow us to present the defense of inability to form specific intent for the cases,\u201d according to audio log notes.<\/p>\n

The \u201cinability to form specific intent\u201d defense claims Brown could not deliberately or consciously intend to commit the crimes because of mental impairment, intoxication or a psychological condition.<\/p>\n

Judge Wayne questioned the timing of the claim, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re a year into this and it is just being raised now? That does not seem overly timely.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Nov. 12, 2025, motion, Cameron stated he learned in September 2025 from alleged witness Ravyn Burns that \u201ca large quantity of the drug methamphetamine was ingested by the defendant a few days\/weeks prior to and during\u201d the dates of the alleged crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became clear large quantities of methamphetamine were used by the defendant over the course of months to years,\u201d Cameron wrote.<\/p>\n

Cameron also stated in the motion that Brown \u201cmade very little mention\u201d of his methamphetamine use during law enforcement interviews.<\/p>\n

Because of this, Cameron hired Dr. Susan Cave, a Santa Fe-based forensic psychologist, to evaluate Brown for \u201ccompetency, insanity and inability to form specific intent,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n

The motion stated that Cave \u201cconcluded\u201d Brown \u201cwas indeed unable to form specific intent\u201d regarding the crimes he allegedly committed.<\/p>\n

Cameron also requested that Cave be permitted to testify, and Wayne ordered her testimony during the jury trial, scheduled for March 24 in Wayne\u2019s Aztec courtroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

allow forensic psychologist\u2019s testimony in Isaiah Brown double homicide trial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19258,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13973\/revisions\/19258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13973"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}