Hanes pleads not guilty in officer's slaying

LAS CRUCES - Jesse Denver Hanes spoke two words Monday in a Las Cruces courtroom as he was arraigned on charges related to last month’s slaying of Hatch police Officer José Ismael Chavez.

Hanes, 38, of Columbus, Ohio, replied “yes” twice when asked by state District Judge Manuel Arrieta if he understood his constitutional rights and the nature of the charges in the seven-count indictment that was filed Aug. 25 by a Doña Ana County grand jury.

Hanes is charged with first-degree willful and deliberate murder in the Aug. 12 shooting death of Chavez during a traffic stop on Franklin Street in the town of Hatch, 40 miles north of Las Cruces.

He also has been charged with trafficking methamphetamine, distribution of marijuana, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Through his attorneys, Liane Kerr and Marie Miller of Albuquerque, Hanes pleaded not guilty to all seven charges during the brief arraignment.

It was his first appearance in 3rd Judicial District Court since his arrest last month by Doña Ana County sheriff’s deputies. Unlike his initial court appearances last month, when he required the assistance of a wheelchair, Hanes on Monday was able to walk from the jury booth to a podium in the middle of the courtroom and stand for a period of time.

Details emerge in shooting of Hatch officer, chase

Hanes’ arrest on Aug. 12 came in connection to a violent crime spree that authorities said began when he was pulled over by Chavez around 3:40 p.m. He was driving a 1991 silver Lexus and was carrying two passengers, James D. Nelson, 36, of Newark, Ohio, and Tony M. Jones, 44, a hitchhiker whose last known address was in Hannibal, Missouri.

It is not known why Chavez, a two-year veteran of the Hatch Police Department, pulled over the Lexus or if he knew that Hanes and Nelson had been on the run from authorities in Ohio, where they are accused of shooting and killing a 62-year-old man in Ross County on July 25.

According to court filings, Chavez approached the passenger side of the Lexus, requested the vehicle’s paperwork and asked Hanes to step out of the vehicle. “At that point, (Hanes) brandished a firearm and shot Officer Chavez in the upper chest/lower neck area, fatally wounding him,” Hanes’ indictment reads.

Chavez, 33, a Las Cruces resident and father of two, was pronounced dead several hours later after undergoing surgery at University Medical Center in El Paso.

Authorities said Hanes then fled from Hatch, heading south on Interstate 25, and led another Hatch officer on a brief high-speed chase. The pursuit had come to an end by the time the Lexus reached the Rincon area, where Nelson and Jones had parted ways with Hanes.

In an interview last month with the Sun-New, Jones claimed that Hanes planned to kill him while they were in Rincon, but he instead shot himself in the groin.

Alone and with a gunshot wound, Hanes fled Rincon in the Lexus and headed south. He exited the interstate at a rest stop near Radium Springs, where he allegedly tried to carjack a vehicle from a couple, but they refused to hand over their keys. Authorities said he then approached another man and demanded the keys to a red Chevrolet Cruze.

The man gave the keys to Hanes, but refused to get inside the vehicle. Hanes is suspected of the shooting the man in the hip before fleeing in the Chevrolet Cruze.

Authorities began pursuing the Chevrolet when it was spotted traveling on N.M. 185. The tires on the Chevrolet were eventually deflated, and the vehicle crashed into a pile of wood in the 23000 block of N.M. 185. Hanes had briefly barricaded himself in the vehicle before he was taken into custody.

Hanes was subsequently transported to UMC for medical treatment and was released to federal custody in Otero County on Aug. 18. A day earlier, federal prosecutors filed firearms and carjacking charges against Hanes. He was eventually indicted on five charges by a federal grand jury and ordered to be detained in custody as a flight risk and danger to the community until trial.

During Hanes’ arraignment on Monday, Kerr asked for a bond bet set in the state’s case against Hanes, arguing that holding him without bond is “unconstitutional.” Following the indictment in the state’s case, Chief District Judge Fernando R. Macias ordered that Hanes be held without bond.

“We believe it is unconstitutional not to at least set a bond of some kind,” Kerr told Arrieta. “I think it’s obvious that Mr. Hanes is going nowhere. He is being held in federal custody, and we ask that you set a bond.”

But Chief Deputy District Attorney Gerald Byers said defendants charged with capital offenses “are not entitled to a bond.”

“This argument should be disregarded,” Byers said. “Judge Macias, whenever the case was originally charged in District Court, set a bond of no bond. It is the state’s position that is correct and is completely in accordance with the law.”

After hearing the brief arguments, Arrieta declined to a set a bond and said the parties would have to address the matter before the assigned judge.

No trials have been scheduled in either the federal or state case, court records show.

Nelson and Jones are each facing drugs charges and remain in custody at the Doña Ana County Detention Center.

Carlos Andres López can be reached 575-541-5453, carlopez@lcsun-news.com or @carlopez_los on Twitter.