Self-defense claimed in Varela double homicide
Written by Silver City Daily Press on May 8, 2018
At issue isn't whether Filemon Varela shot and killed his two cousins, Eric Vega Jr., 19, and Jose "Chuggie" Varela, 17, in the yard of a mobile home at 1620 N. Swan St. nearly five years ago, when he was just 16 years old, but if he was afraid for his life at the time.
Self-defense is the basis of the defense's case in the double homicide Varela was charged with following the shooting on Aug. 30, 2013, which was also Chuggie Varela's 17th birthday.
After many motions and many hearings and being tied up in the New Mexico Supreme Court for three and a half years, Filemon Varela, now 21, finally gets his day in court.
After jury selection Monday morning in Silver City District Court, and opening statements by the state and the defense, it was an afternoon of witness testimony. The jury of eight men and six women heard from eight witnesses, including Chuggie's mother, Maria Hernandez, Holly Castillo, Desiree Arroyos (via recording from the preliminary hearing), Eric Vega Sr., juvenile probation supervisor Rachel Medina, juvenile probation officer Cody McNiel, and former Silver City Police Detective David Holguin and Detective Melinda Hobbs.
It was just supposed to be a fight, testified Castillo, one that she was going to drive Eric Jr. and Chuggie to and record at his request. Eric Jr. had asked her to drive him and Chuggie to meet Filemon at Anthony Brewer's house, so Chuggie and Filemon could fight. No one had guns, she testified, that she was aware of, or that she saw before going to the home. But first, she stopped behind Food Basket so little Eric could consult with his dad, Eric Vega Sr. She and Arroyos stayed in the truck, while Eric Jr., Chuggie, and Arroyos' brother Jeremy Delgado hopped out to talk to Eric Sr.
After, they all got back in the truck and headed to Anthony Brewer's house — the mobile home on the hill where the shooting happened. This time Arroyos was driving. Once there, the boys got out of the truck, and once again the girls stayed behind. Three people were standing up by the mobile home, she said, one was Filemon.
"You ready to fight?" she testified Chuggie said, as he walked up the hill with his arms outstretched.
"Fil looked over at his friend and then pulled a gun out right away and started shooting," she said.
"I was completely focused on Fil, but out of the corner of my eye I seen Eric go after Fil and Fil jumped out of the way and started shooting at Eric."
She testified that Filemon was grinning and laughing during the shooting.
"He had the biggest smile, like he was pumped," she testified.
Filemon shot Chuggie twice and Eric Jr. once, she said. Chuggie ran to the truck Arroyos was driving and got in the passenger seat and Jeremy ran down the hill and jumped in the bed of the truck then climbed through the cab window to get inside. They drove Chuggie to the hospital, where she and Jeremy carried him to a gurney.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Steven Taylor, from the Capital Crimes Unit in Albuquerque, asked Castillo if she had seen the post Eric Jr. made on Facebook in May 2013, telling Fil "he better be strapped."
She said she hadn't.
He asked if she was doing drugs with them. She said no.
"You didn't know they were doing meth?" he asked.
She said she didn't.
"I have a lot of problems with that in my family, so I wouldn't be around all that," she said.
"Did you see the gun Eric Sr. was carrying in his truck?" he asked
"You didn't see any guns that Eric, Jose or Jeremy had?" he asked.
"When Chuggie got shot he had his hands in the air like this," she motioned with her arms wide out.
"You told police that two or three shots were fired at Chuggie, but at the prelim you testified that he unloaded the entire clip," Taylor said.
"When Jeremy was running down the hill, he was shooting," she said of Filemon. "I heard a lot of shots."
Three 9mm shell casings were recovered at the scene on the lawn of the mobile home, according to photo exhibits and Detective Holguin's testimony. The gun was recovered in the loft of a shed at the home of Filemon's mother and stepfather at 400 N. Corbin St., where Filemon had been staying, Chief Deputy District Attorney George Zsoka laid out during his opening statement.
The jury heard from Arroyos via her recorded testimony at the preliminary hearing because she refused to testify, District Court Judge J.C. Robinson said, despite a court order requiring her to do so. The jury was also given a transcript of her testimony as well, which confirmed Castillo's testimony as to who was in the vehicle and who was driving, but Arroyos said she did not see the shooting because she was turning the vehicle around when it occurred.
Eric Vega Sr. testified next. He told the court he told the boys to not go fight that day as it was Chuggie's birthday. He said he followed them after they left Food Basket and they headed to the trailer where Anthony Brewer lived where they were supposed to meet Fil for the fight. He said he went to talk to Filemon and was asking him why he wanted to fight Chuggie, when the shooting occurred.
"Chuggie was saying something about him talking shit and I heard the gunshot," Vega Sr. testified. "He had shot twice. That's when I heard the third shot and I took off after Fil."
He said he and his son got in the truck and he was going to go after Filemon when his son said, "No, take me to the hospital, he shot me too."
Vega Sr. said he didn't have a gun, but a gun was recovered from his truck.
Defense attorney Taylor asked Vega where he had been for the last five years, and wasn't he on warrant status, which is why he hadn't returned to the area.
"At the time of this incident, you were on probation for an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and you were prohibited from owning a gun," Taylor said.
A gun and two baggies of drugs, cocaine and possibly meth, were recovered from Eric Sr.'s vehicle, Detective Holguin later testified.
Taylor attacked Vega Sr.'s claim of being a "peacemaker," saying, "There was an incident with Fil's father. Didn't you beat the crap out of him with a bat?"
The defense also attacked the police investigation, asking Holguin and Hobbs why Detective Holguin and Chetman Spurgeon didn't use recorders for their interviews, why police didn't follow up with witness Greg Brickey, a retired police officer himself who said he saw the shooting from his home across the footbridge. They questioned how the scene was secured, whether a ballistics test was not done on the gun found in Vega Sr.'s truck, and why fingerprint and DNA standards were not taken from Vega to compare to ones at the scene. Defense attorney Lindsey McDonell-Benatar asked Holguin if he remembered working on a case from Oct. 26, 2011, in which Vega Sr. and three others beat up a teenager. That was the case Vega Sr. received a suspended sentence for, according to the New Mexico Courts website. He completed his three years of probation in that case in October 2017.
"You don't remember that kid getting hit with a brick?" she asked, presenting the police report to the detective and having him read it over. "There was a firearm involved in that and both Eric Vega Sr. and Jr. were involved in that case. It's somewhat similar to the case we are talking about today."
"Filemon is barely five feet four inches tall and 100 pounds, and on this day he is scared," defense attorney McDonell-Benatar told the jurors in her opening statement. "He was threatened by Eric Vega Jr. on Facebook. There is a clear reason why Filemon carried a gun that day and why he used it. This case is all about self-defense and the burden is on the state to prove this case. The state has to prove to you that Filemon was not using self-defense."
The trial continues through the week with the second day of testimony beginning at 8:30 this morning.
Christine Steele may be reached at [email protected]