Last defendant in homeless murders gets 20 years

Posted by Colleen Keane | Dec 21, 2017 | News |

ALBUQUERQUE

Three-and-a-half years after Kee Thompson and Allison Gorman were brutally murdered on the city’s west side, the last defendant in their killings was sentenced last Thursday.

Gilbert Tafoya, 18, will serve 20 years in a New Mexico state correctional facility followed by five years’ probation. New Mexico Second District Judge Briana Zamora advised the victims’ families it was the maximum time she was allowed to give based on a plea agreement between Tafoya and the state.

During his sentencing hearing before a packed courtroom, Tafoya extended an apology to Thompson’s and Gorman’s family members. “Three years ago I made a very bad choice and it weighs heavy on me every day,” he said. “I cannot say how sorry I am. I would ask for forgiveness, but I can’t forgive myself. I wish there was something I could do. I will say, I know what I did, I will turn away and it won’t happen again.”

After sentencing came down, Tafoya’s attorney, public defender Mark Earnest, asked Zamora if she would recommend that Tafoya not be sent to the same state prison as either Rios or Carrillo, whom he testified against. One thousand two hundred and forty four days will be taken off of Tafoya’s 20-year sentence for the time he has spent in juvenile detention.

Before Zamora handed down Tafoya’s sentence, close family members of the victims, describing their loss as immeasurable, pleaded for a maximum sentence.

“I cried for my brother when thinking how anyone could do this to another human being, let alone my brother,” stated Alberta Gorman, Allison Gorman’s older sister.

“This senseless tragedy has impacted our entire family. “Each day of the last three-and-a-half years and five months has been empty of Allison’s joy,” she said. “We know a life sentence will not bring my brother Allison back, but it is our hope and wish that it will prevent Gilbert Tafoya from committing such a monstrous crime against another human being.”