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Federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for New Mexico man
Jun. 27—Federal prosecutors in New Mexico said Friday they plan to seek the death penalty for the first time since 2018 in the case of a man charged in two homicides and other crimes.
The request by U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison of New Mexico also marks the state's first capital punishment case since President Donald Trump's administration lifted the ban on federal executions on Feb. 5.
The request comes in the case of Labar Tsethlikai, 52, an enrolled member of Zuni Pueblo, whom federal prosecutors have described as "a serial murderer, kidnapper and sexual abuser" who victimized Native American men, the U.S. Attorney's Office has said.
He has been charged with 17 felonies, including first-degree murder and two counts of kidnapping resulting in death, according to a superseding indictment filed in December 2024. Other charges include aggravated sexual abuse, assault with intent to commit murder and nine counts of kidnapping.
"The maximum penalty for the kidnapping resulting in death charges is death, and Attorney General Bondi has authorized and directed the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico to pursue capital punishment in this case," Ellison's office said in a news release issued Friday.
Federal executions in the U.S. have been on hold since former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium in 2021.
On his first day in office, Jan. 20, President Trump ordered the attorney general, now Pam Bondi, to pursue the death penalty "for all crimes of a severity demanding its use."
The last time federal prosecutors in New Mexico filed a notice to seek the death penalty was in January 2018, according to the Federal Capital Trial Project website. The notice was filed in the case of defendant Kirby Cleveland, who was charged in the 2017 fatal shooting death of Houston Largo, a Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety law enforcement officer.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico withdrew the notice months later. Cleveland pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
In Tsethlikai's case, Ellison, a Trump appointee, notified U.S. District Court Judge David H. Urias on Friday of his intent to seek the death penalty.
Tsethlikai "engaged in a pattern of predatory and sexual violence against other individuals," Ellison and two assistant U.S. attorneys wrote in a notice of intent to seek the death penalty filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.
The alleged crimes were committed "in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse" of the victim, Ellison wrote.
The notice also said that Tsethlikai had previously been convicted of two or more offenses "involving the infliction, or attempted infliction of, serious bodily injury or death upon another person."
Tsethlikai is from Zuni but traveled extensively around New Mexico, including Gallup, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He is believed to have worked in the Native American jewelry industry.
Tsethlikai initially was charged in April with second-degree murder in the Jan. 18, 2024, death of a man found dead in a remote area of the Zuni reservation. Tsethlakai now faces first-degree murder in that death.
In July, Tsethlikai was charged in the October 22, 2022, death of a man identified as "John Doe 1," who died as a result of a kidnapping, according to a superseding indictment.
Additional charges are part of a larger series of violent crimes committed by Tsethlikai against Native American men across New Mexico between 2022 and 2024, the agency has said.
Prosecutors said the victims were Native American men, but none are identified by name in court records. Most of the attacks occurred in McKinley County.
"Simply put, (Tsethlikai) preys on a vulnerable segment of the population, that being males who are either homeless or addicted to controlled substances, or both," prosecutors wrote in an April 29 pretrial detention motion.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Fashing in May ordered Tsethlikai to remain in custody pending trial. He faces a mandatory life sentence or death if convicted of first-degree murder or kidnapping resulting in death, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
