By Rene Romo
Albuquerque Journal
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — 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 traff icking 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.
According to testimony in the trial that started Nov. 7, Smalls, who had worked as a guard at the Doña Ana County Detention Center in 2002 and 2003, told cellmates Cook and Melgar-Diaz that he had received a note telling him to kill Gantz because the Roswell man was a “snitch.” No evidence was presented showing who sent the note, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sometime after lights went out at the detention center on Dec. 29, 2004, Smalls, Cook and Melgar-Diaz attacked Gantz as he lay in bed. Smalls allegedly restrained Gantz’s legs and feet so he could not kick, Cook pinned down the victim’s arms and torso, and Melgar-Diaz pressed a plastic bag over Gantz’s mouth and nose. Smalls allegedly devised the plan to quietly suffocate Gantz so it would look like he died of natural causes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The jury deliberated for about five hours before returning with guilty verdicts against Smalls.
Copyright 2011 Albuquerque Journal