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| Inmate found guilty of Murder |
| By Rene Romo , Journal South Reporter, abqjournal.com |
| Published: 11/21/2011 |
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LAS CRUCES – Phillip Thomas Gantz was targeted for death after he was branded a “snitch” in jail for talking to federal authorities investigating methamphetamine trafficking in his hometown of Roswell. On Thursday, a federal jury convicted 44-year-old Paul Othello Smalls of Las Cruces for conspiring with two other men to murder Gantz by strangling him in a four-person medical unit at the Doña Ana County Detention Center on Dec. 30, 2004. Gantz’s death was initially thought to have resulted from natural causes, possibly an asthma attack, after his body was found in a detention center bed, but a pathologist determined through an autopsy that Gantz had been strangled. Smalls, who had been arrested in September 2004 on charges including criminal sexual penetration of a child and kidnapping, testified that he was asleep when Gantz was murdered, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Smalls, who was given a nine-year prison sentence in state court for the criminal sexual penetration charge, also denied any involvement in the conspiracy leading to Gantz’s death. Two co-defendants in the case, 35-year-old Glenn Dell Cook of Rialto, Calif., and Mexican national Walter Melgar-Diaz, 28, previously entered guilty pleas to five counts contained in a 2006 indictment. The charges, for which Smalls was convicted Thursday, included conspiracy to retaliate against a witness or informant, retaliation against an informant, conspiracy to tamper with a witness, tampering with a witness and killing a person aiding a federal investigation. Melgar-Diaz and Cook each face a maximum penalty of life in prison. After Gantz was arrested in May 2003 on federal methamphetamine trafficking and firearms charges, Gantz pleaded guilty and began talking to the FBI and a law enforcement task force about the web of methamphetamine trafficking in Roswell. “click here for more information” . |
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