{"id":27222,"date":"2024-06-11T17:15:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T23:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-ruled-incompetent-after-killing-mother-committed-for-15-years\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:54:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:54:39","slug":"man-ruled-incompetent-after-killing-mother-committed-for-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-ruled-incompetent-after-killing-mother-committed-for-15-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Man ruled incompetent after killing mother, committed for 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mateo
Mateo Yazzie was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Denise Werito. (Courtesy San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Farmington man accused of stabbing his mother to death was sentenced to 15 years in the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute.<\/p>\n

District Judge Daylene Marsh ruled that Mateo Yazzie, 24, did \u201cby clear and convincing evidence\u201d kill his mother, Denise Werito, on April 4, 2023, at a home in San Juan County, according to a findings and fact hearing on May 29 in the 11th Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

Yazzie was given five mental health evaluations in the past two years after committing crimes of violence against his mother, and he was deemed \u201cnot competent to stand trial on July 28, 2023,\u201d court records state.<\/p>\n

The court also found that Yazzie was \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201cremains dangerous,\u201d and therefore \u201cshould be detained by the Department of Health of the State of New Mexico in a secure, locked facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Yazzie\u2019s three-hour competency hearing on Feb. 6, Dr. Simone Viljoen stated the man \u201cexhibits active symptoms of psychosis diagnosis schizophrenia,\u201d making him not competent to stand trial, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Viljoen also reported that Yazzie showed \u201cparanoid beliefs\u201d of others \u201cwanting to hurt or kill him,\u201d as well as him talking about \u201cthe satanic church, heaven, demons and hell,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n

Viljoen, a forensic psychologist, stated that Yazzie exhibited traits of being emotionally diminished with \u201ca kind of flatnesss\u201d to him, and he appeared \u201cto minimize\u201d and even tried \u201cto hide\u201d his symptoms, court records state.<\/p>\n

Yazzie\u2019s family previously stated that he was a happy and loving child, who changed after using methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got into meth, he was really not himself. He just didn\u2019t take life seriously, and he didn\u2019t have a goal. He didn\u2019t finish school,\u201d said his grandmother, Susie Werito, during a hearing Aug. 22.<\/p>\n

Werito said Yazzie was not allowed to stay with her because \u201che was just not normal. He was scary for us,\u201d court records state.<\/p>\n

Yazzie\u2019s uncle Cornelius Werito, 56, of Farmington, echoed the sentiments, saying his nephew would talk to an \u201cimaginary\u201d friend and claimed to be a \u201cSatan master\u201d who could do whatever he wanted.<\/p>\n

Viljoen told the court drug use could \u201ctrigger mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marsh stated in the sentencing order that 15 years was the maximum sentence for second-degree murder, so Yazzie would be committed to the same amount of time had he been \u201cconvicted in a criminal proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yazzie was granted 422 days of \u201cpre-commitment\/sentence confinement,\u201d meaning he would be held in the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute until April 4, 2038, court records state.<\/p>\n

Yazzie also will be entitled to a review hearing every two years during his commitment, according to court documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mateo Yazzie to be held in the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27222","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=27222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79987,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27222\/revisions\/79987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27222"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}