The jury was selected from an original 3 panels of some 150 prospective jurors on Monday, April 15 in the courtroom of Eighth Judicial District Judge Emilio Chavez. The panel of 9 women and three men began hearing testimony on Tuesday and were given the case for deliberation on Thursday afternoon. The panel returned for a short time and on Friday morning April 19, rendered their decision at about 10 am.
Azamar-Nolasco was found guilty of First Degree Murder, Aggravated Burglary, Aggravated Stalking and for violation of a protection order and, according to Deputy District Attorney Consuelo Garcia, a life sentence in New Mexico means 30 years mandatory. Azamar-Nolasco will also serve 9 years for the Burglary charge and a year and one half for the stalking charge for a total of 40 and 1/2 years.
Nolasco was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at his brother’s residence in Tyler Texas on November 8, 2017, after months of work, the District Attorneys office felt it had enough evidence to move forward with the case.
Vandlandingham was murdered on the morning of Wednesday July 20, 2016 at her residence on Sugarite Ave. in Raton. While police felt they had a good suspect, they had to wait for evidence to be processed by a backlogged State Crime Lab before charges could be filed and an arrest could be made .
