NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A case where the judge called the evidence “some of the most damning evidence I’ve ever seen” led to the conviction of Darian Bashir for the murder of a University of New Mexico student. Bashir and his lawyer then asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to reconsider, and now the Supreme Court has issued its opinion.
The New Mexico Supreme Court has decided that the conviction stands. Bashir claimed a lower court made improper rulings on evidence and biased the case when the court discussed the lack of evidence that the victim had used racial slurs. The New Mexico Supreme Court disagrees.
Bashir was convicted of killing University of New Mexico baseball player Jackson Weller. After facing trial in a New Mexico district court, Bashir received a life sentence. Bashir appealed, and because the case resulted in a life sentence, the appeal went straight to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
In an unreported opinion (“unreported” means it doesn’t set a precedent for future cases), the New Mexico Supreme Court said they found that the lower court made “no error” in excluding a retweet as part of the evidence in the trial. Bashir tried to use the retweet as proof that the victim, Weller, had been involved in using racial slurs. The Supreme Court said that Bashir failed to prove that the retweet came from the victim.
In the appeal, Bashir made several other attempts to argue that the lower court made mistakes during the trial. The New Mexico Supreme Court disagreed with each of Bashir’s claims. So, Bashir remains convicted of first-degree deliberate intent murder.
