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State Supreme Court rules in 2018 triple homicide

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld first-degree murder charges but vacated three felony murder charges against Roger Gage for the 2018 killings of three people. The murders happened in a home near Dixon in Rio Arriba County.

The Court ruled that having both felony murder and first-degree willful and deliberate murder charges violated constitutional protections against double jeopardy. “While only one capital sentence was imposed for each murder, under the judgment and sentence, Defendant stands convicted of six first-degree murder convictions for three killings,” the Court wrote in their unanimous opinion by Justice Michael E. Vigil.

Gage was sentenced to three life sentences for the murder convictions and 21 years for an aggravated burglary conviction, conspiracy to commit murder, and tampering with evidence. The Court also affirmed those convictions in their decision and all sentences will be run consecutively.

Video surveillance caught the shooting deaths of April Browne, Kieran Guillemin, and Abraham Martinez after Gage and his brother, John Powell, entered a Dixon home. Powell was also convicted of three counts of first-degree murder along with other charges.