Former Española city councilor Phillip Chacon will spend an extra year in prison and receive credit for five years of time served, in a global plea deal that put to rest four cases against him.
Chacon pleaded guilty on April 24, appearing virtually from state prison.
He was previously sentenced to five years of supervised probation on a 10-year suspended sentence for a previous case where he knocked out some of his renter’s teeth and stabbed another tenant.
He was then released in 2022 after being held for two-and-a-half years.
In all, Chacon pleaded no contest in four cases, two from 2020, and one each from 2021 and 2022. Across the four cases, he pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and to violating the conditions of probation in three other cases.
Per the plea deal, Chacon was sentenced to six years in prison, but received credit for over five years he has already spent in custody.
While he was previously on probation in the stabbing case, he allegedly attacked and then ran over Eric Mendonca, who is suing the city for not arresting Chacon after he initially attacked him. Chacon showed officers a video of him beating Mendonca and putting him in a chokehold before he tried to bribe them. After officers let him go, he found and ran over Mendonca, severely fracturing his pelvis and leg.
That lawsuit is still pending.
During the April 24 hearing, he thanked District Judge Jason Lidyard for previously sending him to prison in other cases, according to media reports.
Chacon was also responsible for landing former Rio Arriba sheriff James Lujan in prison, after Lujan was convicted for helping him evade arrest by serving him a restraining order and taking him from his house an hour after Chacon led Española city police on a pursuit at speeds of more than 110 miles per hour. Lujan’s deputy, Cody Lattin, testified against him and said he felt intimidated to keep quiet about the details of the incident.
Past Rio Grande SUN material was used in this story.