ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – He’s gotten break after break but he’s asking for yet another one. Justin Hansen who beat a Cibola High School student with a shovel and got away with it for nearly a decade is asking a judge to reduce his sentence again. His reason this time – he wants to be around for his son’s prom and graduation.
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It’s been a horrific 14-year-saga for Brittani Marcell and her family. In 2008, the 17-year-old Cibola High School senior was beaten nearly to death by a man with a shovel.
For nearly 10 years, the identity of that man remained a mystery. Then in 2017, Hansen was arrested. He was the one, according to DNA and other evidence.
Hansen plead no contest to aggravated burglary and attempted murder and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. But three years later, Hansen fought successfully for a sentence reduction arguing his year on a GPS monitor, which included him going on dates to Isotopes games, should count toward his sentence.
Now three months later, another request. According to a motion, Hansen is locked up out of state and COVID restrictions severely limit his ability to see his family and request a shorter term of incarceration so he can be present for events such as prom and graduation.
“I missed my prom my homecoming, football games, everything possible my senior year because of him, and yet he wants early release?” said Marcell.
Another blow to Marcell and her family. “He had just a slim bit of what I went through and he is still in my opinion crying about it?” Marcell said.
District Attorney Raul Torrez said the filed an objection with the court. “We feel this is an outrage,” Torrez said.
Prosecutors are fighting this. They point out that Hansen voluntarily relinquished parental rights to his first child a long time ago. The boy’s mother has testified that he uses that son to get what he wants.
Prosecutors say this should be over. “I know Brittani’s family has waited a long time for justice and now that we finally have it, it’s an outrage the family has to keep living and go to court to make the same arguments to judge that defendant needs to stay behind bars.”
As hard as it is, the Marcells will continue to fight. “We’ve got good days and bad and you get up on the mountain and then oh no this again, he’s trying and something’s got to give somewhere where judge ways that’s it no more it’s done,” said Brittani’s mother, Diane.
A hearing for the motion has not been set. What’s unclear is how Hansen ended up in another state and if he volunteered to go. As for Brittani, she has to undergo yet another surgery next week to fix lasting damage from the attack.
