Duty to Make System Work In April 2001, the Albuquerque Journal North published an article featuring four Santa Fe criminal defense lawyers. Thirteen years earlier, in 1988, the New Mexican newspaper printed an article about Aarons, Jones and a third public defender from Santa Fe.  | | Insert Wilkins Materials. In 1998, two young adults were killed in a remote cabin near Torreon, New Mexico. Two small children were trapped inside the cabin and starved to death. Under considerable pressure from police investigators, who themselves were under public scrutiny, Shawn Popeleski and Lawrence Nieto, two members of the Albuquerque Westside gang, accused Shaun Wilkins and Roy Buchner of the killings. All four men faced separate death penalty trials. Nieto, represented by attorney Gary Mitchell of Ruidoso, New Mexico, was tried first in Estancia, New Mexico. Nieto was convicted of four counts of first degree murder, and was sentenced to more than 130 years in prison. He lost his appeal to the New Mexico Supreme Court. Wilkins Trial Insert additional articles. The next trial was quickly convened in Socorro, New Mexico, against Wilkins as the alleged shooter. The court appointed Stephen D Aarons of Santa Fe to serve as defense counsel for Wilkins. Paralegal Troy Garrity assisted Aarons. During weeks of trial, the story Nieto and Popeleski had given police detectives fell apart. When the jury could not reach a verdict as to any charge, the court declared a mistrial. See Wilkins Mistrial After a second mistrial against Buchner, the prosecutors tried Popeleski in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The jury returned verdicts of guilty against him for two counts of second degree murder. Wilkins Set Free! Before a retrial against Wilkins, attorney Kari Converse of Albuquerque joined Aarons as defense counsel. After the prosecutors lost an interlocutory appeal to the New Mexico Supreme Court, they finally dismissed all charges against Wilkins. The charges against Buckner were also dismissed. Wilkins, who had been sitting on death row for over three years, was finally set free!
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 Pierre Burck, a former marine who had served in the Gulf War, was accused of first-degree murder in the strangulation death of another member of the San Juan Pueblo. Mr. Burck testified that he had acted in self-defense. After a three-day trial, the Rio Arriba jury agreed, acquitting him of all charges. After three days of trial in Tierra Amarilla, a jury decided that Alfredo DeVargas had acted in self defense when he shot and killed a man in La Madera. Although the man was not armed, he appeared to be reaching for a weapon in the shadows. DeVargas was convicted of Negligent Use of a Firearm While Intoxicated, a misdemeanor.
Michelle Bliven was tried for first degree murder in the death of her newborn infant. Jonathan Wigglesworth, the world's leading authority on causes of death at birth, travelled from London to testify that, in his opinion, the baby had died in the uterus through no fault of mother. The jury acquitted Bliven of the murder charge, and she was sentenced to house arrest for the wrongful coverup of her stillborn delivery
Former municipal judge Charles Maestas faced over 80 years in prison after four women alleged he traded leniency in his court for sexual favors. Three of the four were discredited on the stand. In the verdict form, Maestas was found guilty as to the fourth woman, but later six of the twelve jurors reported that they were confused and did not intend to vote guilty. The trial judge imposed a 3 year sentence. The case is being handled on appeal by Santa Fe attorney David Henderson. 
Fred Mestas, 17, went to trial as an adult for the murder of a Santa Fe man. Mestas claimed he had been surrounded by several others, and stabbed the unarmed man in self-defense. The jury acquitted Mestas.
A mother of five children was charged with child abuse stemming from a medical condition suffered by the two oldest children. With the able assistance of Santa Fe defense lawyer Laurie Knight, the jury decided the case did not belong in criminal court.
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