State v. Garcia, 149 N.M. 185

Garcia was convicted of first degree felony murder, armed robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, and tampering with evidence for the Memorial Day 2005 murder of Jeff Armstrong; armed robbery merged into felony murder.
The homicide occurred at Armstrong's apartment during a party at neighbor Sarita Duran's place, where Garcia allegedly went to steal marijuana.
Eyewitnesses placed Garcia at Armstrong's apartment during the crime; witnesses described Garcia pulling a gun and killing Armstrong after a struggle over a firearm.
After the shooting, Garcia and an associate allegedly concealed or attempted to dispose of the weapon, and Garcia later tried to sell or have others hide the gun; the weapon was not recovered.
The district court merged the armed robbery with felony murder but did not vacate the underlying armed robbery conviction, leading to a post-trial appeal and a life sentence under life-imprisonment jurisdiction rules.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for felony murder	Garcia argues eyewitness credibility undermines the verdict	Garcia contends witnesses were inherently unbelievable	Sufficient evidence supports felony murder
Sufficiency of evidence for tampering with evidence	State contends overt acts show intent to conceal	Garcia argues concealment attempts are not proven	Overt acts sufficient; tampering conviction affirmed
Severance of felon in possession	Joinder prejudices by admitting past felonies	Joinder should have been severed to avoid prejudice	Harmless error; we modify Dominguez to require severance or bifurcation when prior felony evidence is not cross-admissible
Admissibility of Garcia's Rio Rancho statement	Statement admissible regardless of later law changes	Argues suppression under later electronic-recording statute	statute not in effect at time of interview; claim baseless
Effectiveness of defense counsel	Counsel failed to pursue voluntary intoxication defense	Counsel acted unreasonably in strategy; no prejudice shown	Counsel's performance not deficient; strategy reasonable

State v. Duran, 140 P.3d 515 (2006-NMSC-035) (sufficiency review; credibility and essential facts for conviction)
State v. Arellano, 572 P.2d 223 (Ct.App. 1977) (example of tampering evidence; overt act concept)
State v. Gallegos, 141 N.M. 185, 152 P.3d 828 (2007-NMSC-007) (joinder prejudices; severance considerations; harmless error)
State v. Dominguez, 142 N.M. 811, 171 P.3d 750 (2007-NMSC-060) (severance vs. non-severance; admonitions on prejudice)
State v. Schoonmaker, 143 N.M. 373, 176 P.3d 1105 (2008-NMSC-010) (double jeopardy; vacating underlying offenses required)