{"id":33846,"date":"2023-05-25T18:40:40","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T00:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-sentenced-to-12-years-prison-for-unprovoked-stabbing-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:13:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:13:55","slug":"man-sentenced-to-12-years-prison-for-unprovoked-stabbing-in-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-sentenced-to-12-years-prison-for-unprovoked-stabbing-in-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sentenced to 12 years prison for \u2018unprovoked\u2019 stabbing in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Smith\"
Smith<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Shiprock, New Mexico, man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday in 6th Judicial District Court for stabbing a man in the neck last August in downtown Durango. He pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, a class four felony.<\/p>\n

Bill Smith stabbed Jose Luis Delucio Diaz, 34, who was sitting on the corner of 10th Street and Main Avenue about 11 p.m. Aug. 19. Police called the assault \u201cunprovoked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz had been kicked out of a bar and separated from his cousin the night of the stabbing and was on the phone trying to locate his relative when Smith approached. Diaz told police that Smith appeared \u201caggressive\u201d before stabbing him in the neck with a knife.<\/p>\n

Police recovered a bloody knife from the trash can in front of El Rancho Tavern.<\/p>\n

The 12-year sentence handed down by District Judge Suzanne Carlson was the maximum allowed under the terms of a plea agreement reached between Smith and the District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

According to Durango Police Department investigator Mike Kelly, who testified at Thursday\u2019s sentencing, Smith offered multiple versions of the events leading up to the stabbing. The basis of Smith\u2019s explanation, Kelly testified, was that he had been attacked by a group of people and was worried that Diaz, who was speaking on the phone in Spanish, was a member of a drug cartel to which Smith owed money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only motive we were able to find was that he believed the cartel was after him for a drug debt of $300,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

Kelly said that his investigation, in which he listened to eyewitness accounts and reviewed footage from three security cameras, revealed no evidence of any individual or group attacking Smith the night of the assault.<\/p>\n

The knife came close to hitting Diaz\u2019s carotid artery, which could have led to a fatal outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Smith is fortunate that he\u2019s not here on a first-degree murder charge, based on his conduct,\u201d Assistant District Attorney Sean Murray told the court.<\/p>\n

In a plea for leniency, defense attorney Christian Hatfield noted Smith\u2019s previous trauma and associated mental health concerns. Hatfield argued that Smith had been attacked in downtown Durango a month before the incident, calling Smith\u2019s conduct \u201cimperfect self-defense\u201d and said that Smith was clearly in need of inpatient treatment.<\/p>\n

Murray noted Smith\u2019s lengthy criminal history, which dates back to 1984, in his request for the maximum agreed upon sentence of 12 years. He also noted that apparent prejudice with which Smith acted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears Mr. Diaz was stabbed for being a Spanish speaker,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

Hatfield called the sentence unfortunate, but \u201cnot unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, who stood shackled in jail garb, offered little in the way of comments other than to say \u201cI\u2019m sorry for everything that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlson said probation and treatment, the requested sentence of the defense, would not be appropriate given Smith\u2019s criminal history, which she characterized as \u201cextensive\u201d and \u201cviolent.\u201d<\/p>\n

After handing down her sentence, Carlson wished him luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need any luck,\u201d Smith responded.<\/p>\n

Smith will be required to pay $4,078.86 in restitution to cover medical expenses. He will serve three years on parole upon his release.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

pleaded guilty to second degree assault <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1078,585,168,1065,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-6th-judicial-district","tag-assault-general","tag-crime","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33846","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=33846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82372,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33846\/revisions\/82372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33846"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}