{"id":16935,"date":"2025-08-14T17:05:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-orders-immediate-release-of-first-degree-murder-suspect\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:02:09","slug":"judge-orders-immediate-release-of-first-degree-murder-suspect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-orders-immediate-release-of-first-degree-murder-suspect\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders immediate release of first-degree murder suspect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Eleventh
Eleventh Judicial District Judge Bradley Keeler was appointed to the bench in June 2024 by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Farmington man accused of first-degree murder in the shooting of a Black man could soon be out of jail, after a Gallup judge\u2019s ruling to release him pending trial.<\/p>\n

District Judge Bradley Keeler ordered the immediate release of Raul Gonzalez, 20, after choosing to believe the suspect\u2019s claims over testimony from the former defense attorney, Todd Holmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe called the former attorney and had him testify, and he indicated that he had spoke with the defendant about waiving (time) and the defendant was OK with it,\u201d Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Decker said. \u201cThe judge found the former defense attorney\u2019s testimony not credible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Raul
Raul Gonzalez, 20, of Farmington was arrested April 1, 2025, in connection to the shooting death of Samuell Tariq Liggins, 20, of Farmington.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gonzalez was arrested March 31 and charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the March 30 shooting death of Samuell Tariq Liggins, who was shot in the head at a house party on County Road 3149 in Farmington.<\/p>\n

On May 14, while in jail, Gonzalez signed an extension of time, which was filed in court on May 15 by Holmes.<\/p>\n

However, when he hired new defense attorneys \u2013 Shellie Patscheck and Kenneth Stalter \u2013 Gonzalez said through his attorneys that he did not agree to waive time.<\/p>\n

Judge Keeler, who was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to the bench in June 2024, believed the defendant over the former defense attorney, ordering Gonzalez to be released.<\/p>\n

Before becoming a judge, Keeler practiced law for 20 years with a focus on disability law, assisting people who had been denied benefits by the Social Security Administration.<\/p>\n

He was handed the Gonzalez case after five other 11th Judicial District Court judges recused themselves.<\/p>\n

Decker said that in addition to testimony from Holmes, the DA presented compelling evidence to keep Gonzalez in jail before his trial, but \u201cthe judge still decided to let him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Farmington
Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Keeler did order a $10,000 secured bond and an ankle monitor, when he decided to release Gonzalez into Pretrial Services. He also asked law enforcement to \u201csearch the home firearms.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe learned that an alleged murderer could be back on the street, he acted quickly to keep him in jail.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez had been arrested by Farmington Police on Jan. 12 for DWI, negligent use of a deadly weapon and duty upon striking fixtures or other property.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was out on pretrial when he committed a murder,\u201d Hebbe said, adding that was a violation of his conditions of release.<\/p>\n

The Liggins homicide was investigated by the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office, so Hebbe said he had little information about the case. However, Farmington Police did investigate an April 20 drive-by shooting in which a home in the area of Poplar Street, Peach Street and Bluffview Avenue was shot 15 times.<\/p>\n

The investigation led police to believe that this shooting was in direct retaliation for Liggins\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

\"Joseph
Joseph Marcos Tate, 20, of Farmington was arrested July 9, 2025, for an alleged drive-by shooting in retaliation of the March 20 killing of Tariq Liggins.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Joseph Marcos Tate, 20, was charged in the shooting and reportedly told police that his \u201cfriends were really close to Tariq so it would make sense that the drive-by shooting was retaliation of Tariq\u2019s homicide,\u201d according to the arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

Hebbe said that keeping Gonzalez in jail is in the best interest of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it became clear what was happening, we made an immediate petition for the safety of the community to make sure he was kept in jail,\u201d Hebbe said, adding Keeler\u2019s decision to release Gonzalez \u201cgoes again to what I\u2019ve been saying \u2013 the criminal justice system has lost its way in New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hebbe recently spoke out in another case, in which a judge released a man deemed incompetent, only to see that man stab a 69-year-old woman at least 20 times, leaving her fighting for her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not focused on justice, on victims and on families, and the result is more people getting killed,\u201d Hebbe said.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to keep the community safe, Hebbe worked with Farmington City Attorney Jennifer Breakell to file a motion to revoke Gonzalez\u2019s conditions of release in his municipal case.<\/p>\n

Breakell said Gonzalez has not served any time on the municipal charges as they have not been adjudicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is exposed to 90 days in jail on each charge,\u201d Breakell said, adding he could face a \u201ctotal of 179 days which is the maximum municipal court can give under their jurisdiction rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hearing on the municipal charges of DWI, negligent use and duty upon striking fixtures or other property is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 18 in Municipal Judge Robert Miller\u2019s courtroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe works fast to keep man in jail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16935","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=16935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20473,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16935\/revisions\/20473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16935"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}