Hate Crime in Santa Fe

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March 3, 2005 - Man beaten in gay bashing clings to life
June 18, 2006 - Santa Fe Bashers to get No Prison Time

Also see Update on 03/03/2005

(Santa Fe, New Mexico) Three men have been charged in the beating of a Santa Fe gay man that was so vicious he was left unconscious.

James Maestas (pictured right), 21, and his partner Joshua Stockham 24, of Albuquerque had just finished lunch with several female friends at a Santa Fe restaurant and had gone outside for a smoke when five men drove into the parking lot. The men attempted to talk up the girls and at some point got into an argument with Maestas and Stockham.

A police statement says that the argument escalated with one of the men calling Maestas and Stockham “faggots” and trying to provoke a fight.

Stockham, Maestas and the females got into a car and began driving away. The men then began throwing rocks at the car according to the statement said.

A man identified as the person who had waited on them in the restaurant, David Trinidad, 17, was just finishing work and came outside. The statement said that Trinidad knew the five men and joined in the rock throwing.

Trinidad, the police statement said, learned the men were staying at nearby hotel while he was serving them.

He told investigators that he and the five men followed the group to the hotel and along the way they “pumped” themselves up by talking about “fucking those faggots up”. The statement also quotes Trinidad as telling investigators that they referred to Stockham and Maestas as “fucking white boys.”

They arrived at the hotel just behind Stockham and Maestas and began beating the pair while yelling anti-gay epithets.

Maestas fell to the ground unconscious. (source)

Other sources
Suspects in gay bashing attend first court hearing
Gay couple bashed in Santa Fe, N.M.

Trinidad had overheard where the two men were staying, and the group went to that nearby motel. Maturin and Medina attacked Maestas while Trinidad and another man hit Stockham, the statement read. “Maturin said that as he approached them he saw the two victims kissing, and he pushed them and started punching victim Maestas,” court records state. “He said he was joined by suspect Isaia Medina, who, according to Maturin, really started ‘pounding’ the victim.”

According to Albuquerque TV station KRQE, Maestas was beaten unconscious. “He was found by a stairwell in the hotel. He had been beaten pretty severely. He sustained several facial and head injuries,” said Eric Johnson of the Santa Fe police department. Police say Maestas was in critical condition Monday at St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe, where he was on a respirator.

All of this has me thinking that maybe (and I’m totally serious about this), that I should stop by Sports Authority and buy a baseball bat for the trunk of my car, or get a stun gun. I’ve thought about the times I have been called a faggot while on lunch or whatever, and nothing had come of it because I just ignored it. But I know that anytime someone calls you a faggot, it’s not hard to have that develop into violence.