State v. Nolan

CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedJune 5, 2025
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Nolan (State v. Nolan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Nolan, (N.M. 2025).

Opinion

This decision of the Supreme Court of New Mexico was not selected for publication in the New Mexico Appellate Reports. Refer to Rule 12-405 NMRA for restrictions on the citation of unpublished decisions. Electronic decisions may contain computer- generated errors or other deviations from the official version filed by the Supreme Court.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

Filing Date: June 5, 2025

No. S-1-SC-40029

STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

TRAVIS NOLAN,

Defendant-Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF LINCOLN COUNTY Daniel A. Bryant, District Judge

Bennett J. Baur, Chief Public Defender Kimberly Chavez Cook, Appellate Defender Mark A. Peralta-Silva, Assistant Appellate Defender Santa Fe, NM

for Appellant

Raúl Torrez, Attorney General Van Snow, Acting Deputy Solicitor General Santa Fe, NM

for Appellee

DECISION

VIGIL, Justice.

{1} Defendant Travis Nolan appeals directly to this Court from his convictions for first-degree murder, armed robbery, and tampering with evidence. For these crimes he was sentenced to life in prison plus fifteen years, including a three-year sentence enhancement for using a firearm in the commission of the armed robbery. {2} Defendant presents three arguments. First, he asserts that the district court erred by denying Defendant the opportunity to present surrebuttal evidence at trial. Second, he claims that the district court erred by admitting a photograph of a tattoo on Defendant’s chest and a video call in which Defendant discussed the tattoo. Third, he argues that the three-year firearm sentence enhancement is an illegal sentence.

{3} The State correctly concedes that the firearm enhancement imposed by the district court is contrary to law because only a one-year enhancement is allowed under Defendant’s circumstances. We reject Defendant’s other arguments for reasons explained herein. We affirm Defendant’s convictions and remand for resentencing in accordance with our conclusion that Defendant’s three-year firearm sentencing enhancement is illegal. We exercise our discretion to decide the issues through a nonprecedential decision pursuant to Rule 12-405(B) NMRA.

I. BACKGROUND

{4} Victim Christopher Williams was killed in his truck on May 25, 2019, by three shotgun blasts from no more than four feet away. Each shot inflicted fatal injuries. He was pushed out of his truck. Defendant admits to the killing, but claimed at trial that the killing was in self-defense.

{5} Defendant first met Victim a few weeks prior to the killing. Defendant testified that he sold marijuana to Victim and then accepted an invitation to a party at an apartment where Victim sometimes stayed. Defendant stated that he felt reluctant to attend the party because he had seen Victim showing off—“flossing”– a .380 handgun.

{6} Victim’s roommate, Patrick Sanchez, testified that he saw Defendant, Victim, and another person drinking at the party. Sanchez decided to go upstairs to visit with his girlfriend and, on the way, heard Defendant and Victim agree to pretend to fight one another—to shadowbox. Sanchez testified that from upstairs he heard Defendant shout that he was willing to fight Victim but did not want to die over “something like this.” Sanchez went downstairs and saw Victim pointing a gun at Defendant, who had his hands up. Sanchez took the gun from Victim and unloaded it.

{7} From the back and forth between Defendant and Victim, Sanchez gleaned that Defendant punched Victim twice, contrary to their agreement not to hit one another. As recompense, Victim wanted “two licks” on Defendant. Although Defendant declined to let Victim hit him, he agreed to fight outside. Once outside the apartment, Defendant and Victim took off their shirts and assumed fighting stances. Sanchez further testified that just as they were about to fight, Victim turned like he was going to go back inside and said, “I got something for him.” Defendant ran off.

{8} A few weeks before the killing, on April 26, Defendant attempted to purchase a 12-gauge shotgun from a sporting goods store, but the purchase was delayed for a background check. Defendant picked up the shotgun on May 10.

{9} On the morning of the killing, May 25, Defendant’s brother, Derek Chavez, received multiple phone calls from Defendant. During the first phone call, Defendant asked Chavez to help him “do dirt.” Chavez understood “dirt” to mean cause harm. Chavez declined Defendant’s request and ignored the rest of Defendant’s phone calls.

{10} Also on the day of the killing, Defendant stopped by Victim’s apartment twice looking for Victim. Victim was not there; but Sanchez, Sanchez’s girlfriend, and another person were at the apartment. Defendant had a backpack with him. Sanchez’s girlfriend testified that she saw a gun wrapped in a red hoodie sticking out of the backpack. She heard Defendant repeatedly say he wanted to meet up with Victim to take Victim’s truck. In her view, Defendant was “adamant” about taking the truck and seemed “ambitious that he wanted to do it.” Defendant asked Sanchez to call Victim to set up a meeting between Defendant and Victim, at the apartment or somewhere else. Although Sanchez agreed to set up the meeting, he never followed through. After the second visit, Sanchez and his girlfriend gave Defendant a ride to Two Rivers Park.

{11} Defendant called his then sister-in-law, Shawnee Walker, to ask for a ride. Walker picked him up at Two Rivers Park. Defendant told Walker that he was going hiking with a friend and asked to be dropped off near a bridge. During the ride, Defendant repeatedly asked to get in contact with Chavez so that they could do “dirty work.” To Walker, “dirty work” meant, in essence, “harming somebody.” Walker noticed that Defendant had a shotgun covered by a red hoodie sticking out of his bag. Walker asked Defendant not to do anything stupid and dropped him off.

{12} On the evening of the killing, Defendant knocked on the door to Victim’s parents’ home—where Victim was staying at the time and where Defendant had been before. Defendant testified that he went to Victim’s parents’ house because he was running around that day selling marijuana “to everybody . . . here and there” and wanted to sell Victim marijuana. Victim talked to Defendant outside of the house, then went back inside to tell his mother that he was going to give Defendant a ride to the store and would be home in a few minutes.

{13} Defendant testified that he and Victim got into Victim’s truck, and Victim gave Defendant some Suboxone. The conversation “seem[ed] good,” according to Defendant, but after about five minutes the encounter changed when Defendant threw up “a little bit,” perhaps from the Suboxone. Defendant testified that he and Victim began arguing because Victim thought he was “faking it,” referring to the vomiting or nausea. According to Defendant, Victim was also upset that Defendant knew where Victim lived but Victim did not know where Defendant lived.

{14} Defendant testified that he wanted to get out of the truck at that point, but Victim would not let him out. Instead, Victim insisted on bringing Defendant back to Defendant’s house. Defendant testified that he tried to trick Victim by instructing him to drive to his brother’s house. But Victim didn’t believe that Defendant lived where Defendant instructed him to go because Victim had met Defendant in a different area on a prior occasion.

{15} Then, according to Defendant, they “just kind of looked at each other . . . didn’t say nothing, just kind of staring at each other’s eyes and next thing you know we just started [fighting].” Defendant was not sure who struck first.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Nolan, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nolan-nm-2025.