New Mexico man convicted of second-degree murder for beating doctor to death with pool cue
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A jury on Monday convicted a 20-year-old New Mexico man of second-degree murder for beating a Farmington doctor to death with a pool cue and hiding his body in a wood pile.
Jurors returned the verdict against John Mayes after deliberating a total of 10 hours since Friday, the Farmington Daily Times reported (http://bit.ly/1iLAkk3 ).
The jury opted not to convict Mayes of first-degree murder for the June 9, 2011, killing of Dr. James Nordstrom. First-degree murder was the more serious charge and would have earned Mayes an automatic life sentence.
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The second-degree murder conviction, along with five other lesser charges Mayes was convicted of Friday, mean he'll receive a maximum prison sentence of 31 1/2 years.
His sentencing hearing hasn't been scheduled.
On Friday, the jury convicted Mayes of aggravated burglary, evidence tampering and other charges.
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Mayes, the adopted son of Farmington city manager Rob Mayes, has been on trial in Gallup since Nov. 13.
Prosecutors said Mayes broke into Nordstrom's home during a burglary. When Mayes saw Nordstrom was watching television, he armed himself with a pool cue and waited in the bedroom, where he attacked the doctor and bludgeoned him to death, prosecutors said.
After killing Nordstrom, Mayes buried the doctor underneath a wood pile near his home in the Farmington Foothills neighborhood, prosecutors says. He took the doctor's truck and wallet and charged more than $3,000 to his credit cards, investigators.
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But Mayes' defense contends that Nordstrom invited Mayes into his home and that Mayes was defending himself from an unwanted sexual advance by Nordstrom.
They also had his counselor and a forensic psychiatrist testify that Mayes suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder, or RAD, because of severe neglect and possible abuse he suffered as a young boy in the Ukraine before he was adopted.