CNJ staff
A 35-year-old Clovis man was sentenced to life in prison for the second time after receiving a retrial for the 2006 shooting death of a 19-year-old man.
Robert Macias received the sentence Wednesday, the maximum allowed on charges of first-degree murder in the death of Wilfred Salas Jr.
Macias was convicted in 2007, but that verdict was overturned in 2009 by the New Mexico Supreme Court. The court ruled that Joe Parker, the trial judge, erred when he allowed a jail house phone call to be played for jurors.
Curry County jurors affirmed the conviction Jan. 7, after a new trial was held in the case.
Prosecutors have said the motive for the shooting centered on Macias getting revenge for being embarrassed at a bar the night of Jan. 15, 2006.
At trial they presented testimony that Macias later overheard a group of people, including Salas, making fun of him when he eavesdropped from the yard of a house where they were gathered.
“In one of the most senseless acts of violence the defendant took one life and wasted his own, all over being embarrassed in a bar scuffle,” District Attorney Matt Chandler said in a press release.
