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SANTA FE, N.M. The man convicted of murdering a 75-year-old Santa Fe man and then burning his body had his “warrior gene” defense rejected yet again by the New Mexico Supreme Court.
The New Mexico Supreme Court last week upheld Anthony Blas Yepez’s 22½ year sentence for the murder of George Ortiz in 2012.
Yepez was found guilty in 2015 by a Santa Fe jury for second-degree murder, evidence tampering and motor vehicle theft.
Yepez, 34, appealed his case on a warrior gene defense that wasn’t allowed into evidence in his original trial by 1st Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer. The judge ruled that there wasn’t any evidence that demonstrates the warrior gene results in a predisposition towards aggressive behavior.
A District Court judge on Tuesday sentenced actor and Native American film producer Redwolf Pope to four years in prison for raping a Seattle woman in a Santa Fe hotel room in 2017.
Pope, 44, was convicted of rape and voyeurism by a jury in September. Prosecutors said he took photos and video of himself sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in a hotel room after the woman asked him to drive her home from a party.
The woman, an acquaintance of Popeâs, told prosecutors she was handed a drink when she got into Popeâs vehicle and woke up without any memory of what occurred that night.