The New Mexico Supreme Court has vacated the felony murder conviction of a Las Cruces teen involved in a 2021 house party shooting that left one man dead, ruling that the charge was based on a legally invalid application of the state’s felony murder statute.
In a unanimous opinion issued Monday, the Court found that aggravated assault cannot be used as the underlying felony to elevate a homicide charge to felony murder — the basis of Mawu Ekon Revels’ first-degree murder conviction.
“Defendant’s conviction for felony murder is legally invalid because it is based on the predicate felony of aggravated assault,” wrote Justice C. Shannon Bacon. “Therefore, we vacate that conviction as a nonexistent crime.”
Revels was 17 when he and another young man opened fire during a fight at a house party in Las Cruces. Bullets struck and killed 21-year-old Nicodemus Gonzales, and hit the car of a young woman fleeing the scene. A jury later convicted Revels of felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at or from a motor vehicle, and two conspiracy charges.
The high court also threw out one of the conspiracy convictions, finding insufficient evidence that there had been more than one coordinated plan between the teens to commit violence that night.
Justices further ruled that Revels was wrongly sentenced with a four-year firearm enhancement, noting that under New Mexico law, juvenile defendants like Revels should only receive a one-year enhancement when charged with first-degree murder.
The case will now return to Doña Ana County District Court for resentencing and further proceedings. Prosecutors may retry Revels on a lesser offense, such as second-degree murder, but not on a charge of willful, deliberate first-degree murder — the jury acquitted him of that charge, and double jeopardy protections apply.
Felony murder under New Mexico law is typically charged when a killing occurs during the commission of another felony. But justices clarified that the underlying felony must be “collateral” or independent of the act of murder itself. Aggravated assault does not meet that standard because second-degree murder inherently includes an assault, the Court explained.
“At bottom, a conviction for a nonexistent crime is a charging defect,” the justices wrote.
The Court also clarified that this case did not meet the standard for directly remanding the case for sentencing on second-degree murder, noting that the reversal stemmed from a trial error — not an acquittal — and that such decisions depend on the evidence and jury instructions in each individual case.
The full decision in State v. Revels, No. S-1-SC-39841, is available through the New Mexico Compilation Commission.