Opinion ID: 6536853
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The facts of Allen's case

Text: {170} On February 7, 1994, Allen happened to encounter Sandra Phillips as Sandra walked through Flora Vista, New Mexico to complete an errand and apply for a job at a local restaurant. State v. Allen , 2000-NMSC-002 , ¶ 2, 128 N.M. 482 , 994 P.2d 728 . They did not know each other. At that time, Sandra was seventeen years old and had just moved home to live with her mother. Allen thought Sandra was cute and good looking, and he liked her red hair. Allen and Sandra spoke and then, for reasons unknown, Sandra entered Allen's truck. {171} Allen drove Sandra out into the hills because he wanted to make love to her. He tied a rope around Sandra's neck so he could control her while he made love to her. Initially, the rope was wrapped around Sandra's neck three times and then knotted. Allen tightened the rope to a point that it cut off the blood supply to Sandra's brain. Sandra struggled with Allen for about thirty seconds as he attempted to rape her, but she lost consciousness and went limp. Allen pulled Sandra's blouse over her chest, removed Sandra's left boot, and then removed Sandra's left leg from her pants and underwear. Even though Sandra was unconscious, she was still breathing. Allen wrapped the rope around her neck a fourth time and again knotted it. Sandra died one to two minutes after losing consciousness. She was slowly strangled to death. In the course of the struggle, Allen sustained a facial scratch and a bruised lip. Id. ¶ 5. {172} After murdering Sandra, Allen put her half-naked corpse in a ditch three-and-one-half miles from Flora Vista. Id. ¶ 3. The evidence indicated that the killing occurred somewhere other than where the body was discovered. Id. ¶ 7. Allen cleaned his truck to eliminate any evidence of the murder. Sandra's corpse remained in the ditch until it was discovered by a shepherd six weeks later. Id. ¶ 3. The jury was shown sixteen photographs of Sandra's half-naked, decaying corpse. {173} When the police informed Allen that they suspected he killed Sandra, Allen informed them that the perpetrator was, in fact, a man named David Anderson from Jemez Springs. Yet, Allen told his wife and others that he raped and then killed Sandra in order to prevent her from reporting the rape and expressed to others that he thought he would not be convicted for the crime. {174} At the sentencing phase, the jury learned that Allen had taken measures to silence other women he had victimized. The jury was informed that, in the 1980s, Allen stole money from a woman and, when she confronted him about the theft, he grabbed her by the throat, pushed her against a wall, and threatened to kill her if she reported the incident to the police. Allen was imprisoned for this conduct. Id. ¶ 80. This testimony in conjunction with Allen's statements to his wife and others that he raped Sandra and then killed her to prevent her from reporting the rape formed the basis for the jury's finding that Allen killed Sandra with the aggravating circumstance that he murdered  to silence a witness. Id. ¶¶ 79 -80. At the sentencing hearing, Sandra's mother and a family friend testified, and a short video of Sandra on a camping trip was played for the jury. Id. ¶¶ 56 -58. This evidence was, by all accounts, particularly forceful and established that Allen's actions irreparably wounded Sandra's family and friends. See id. at ¶ 145 (Franchini, J., partial concurrence and partial dissent). {175} Allen also spoke to the jury at sentencing. Id. ¶ 82. He offered mitigating evidence on his own behalf, the only mitigating evidence presented. Id. He sobbed, cried, and told the jury he was sorry for the pain he had caused.