Pecos man who fatally shot two after argument over haircut gets life sentences
Oct. 3—A Pecos man found guilty of murdering two people during a booze-fueled fight over a haircut recently received two life sentences, plus 13 1/2 years in prison.
An attorney for Mark Valencia, 42, said he plans to appeal the first-degree murder convictions, arguing Valencia was too drunk to commit premeditated murder.
A San Miguel County jury convicted Valencia in August of the fatal shootings of Steven Singer, 40, and Eva Aragon, 48. Jurors also found him guilty of the attempted murder of David Sturgeon, who was wounded in the 2021 incident, and shooting at a dwelling or occupied building.
State District Judge Abigail Aragon — no relation to Eva Aragon — sentenced Valencia last month.
The killings occurred Dec. 11, 2021, at Sturgeon's residence in Pecos, where Singer had cut Valencia's hair, according to court records.
"Valencia was unhappy with the haircut" and an argument ensued, prosecutors said in a statement Monday.
"The argument escalated to the point that Valencia left the residence and went to his car and returned with a 9mm handgun," the statement said.
Valencia found the home's front door locked and shot it open, according to the statement. He then confronted Singer and shot him in the face, prosecutors said. When Eva Aragon, Valencia's girlfriend, tried to aid Singer, Valencia shot her in the forehead.
"Valencia then turned his attention to David Sturgeon, the homeowner — he pointed the handgun at him and fired at him multiple times," the statement said. "Mr. Sturgeon took cover by hiding in a closet and called 911."
Investigators discovered multiple bullet holes in the door, the kitchen and the master bathroom, along with five bullets and two fragments, according to the District Attorney's Office. "An eighth bullet was later recovered from the body of Mr. Singer."
The case wasn't a who-done-it, attorney David Silva said Tuesday. Valencia admitted to the shootings, or what he remembered of them, when police interrogated him.
"It came down to whether he was so intoxicated he could have formed any intent whatsoever," Silva said.
State law allows for a defense to first-degree murder based on intoxication, Silva said, and he made that argument at trial. However, he said, the court denied his request to give jurors an instruction regarding the intoxication defense.
If his request had been approved, Silva said, jurors would have been instructed that it was the state's burden to rebut the intoxication defense to a charge of first-degree murder, and prove Valencia wasn't so intoxicated at the time of the shootings that he couldn't form deliberate intent. Had jurors convicted him of second-degree murder, he would have faced a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for each count.
Silva said there was "plenty of evidence" everyone involved in the incident was extremely drunk that night, including witnesses' testimony and the fact Valencia was passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle at the scene when New Mexico State Police responded to Sturgeon's 911 call.
"They were drinking vodka and beer and getting drunker and drunker as the night [went] on," Silva said.
Toxicology reports revealed Eva Aragon and Singer both had blood-alcohol levels more than three times the 0.08 legal limit for driving — 0.29 and 0.25, respectively — according to Silva.
"To top it all off," the attorney said, Valencia was charged with negligent use of a firearm on the basis of intoxication.
Prosecutors "were making two arguments at closings, one that he was intoxicated and had a gun and that's a crime, and also that he wasn't intoxicated when he shot" the victims, Silva said.
District Attorney Thomas Clayton said Tuesday he wasn't surprised Silva planned to file an appeal but said "the evidence is fairly strong showing [Valencia's] intent."
He noted Valencia made a conscious decision to go to his vehicle to retrieve his gun and then force his way back into the house. Even after shooting Singer and Eva Aragon, Clayton said, Valencia pursued the homeowner through the house, seeking Sturgeon out in the closet where he was placing a desperate 911 call.
The statement from prosecutors said Valencia was asked why he didn't just go home when he went to his car that night, and Valencia responded, "I thought about it. I probably could have."
