30-year-old murder case re-opened to address parole errors

RIO RANCHO — Three decades ago, a local teenager and his two friends murdered his 80-year-old grandparents. Now, the state is looking to amend the parole terms on their sentences.

Jeremy Rose, now in his 40s, was the last of three to have his parole looked at. Sandoval County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Martinez says the other two defendants in the case have had their parole addressed.

Martinez’s motion to amend the parole order Nov. 18 was denied by the judge, for now, due to arguments from the defense team. Because the defense team is fighting the motion, they need to request original transcripts from the earlier proceedings and file a denial motion to counter Martinez’s motion. For now, Rose’s parole remains at two years instead of the five required by law.

According to Observer archives, in February 1994, Michael Brown, 16 at the time, and his two friends Bernadette Setser, also 16 at the time, and Rose, 17, were suspected of plotting and committing the murder of Edward and Marie Brown, Michael’s grandparents. The 6-year-old granddaughter discovered the bodies and asked a neighbor for help calling the police. The investigation revealed the Browns had been stabbed to death, each with 50-plus stab wounds. A year later, Rose pleaded and the other two were found guilty. They were all sentenced to life imprisonment. Brown and Setser were sentenced to additional time for the conspiracy charges. Through the course of the trial, Rose revealed that Brown was the one who orchestrated the murder. While Brown and Setser were sentenced for additional conspiracy charges on top of the murder charge, Rose was only charged with murder after he took the plea deal.

Rose’s parole is now the one being looked at. According to Martinez, there were some clerical errors on the judgement and sentencing that need to be corrected. The other two were withdrawn because they had been addressed already.

“The original plea allowed for a shorter parole. However, that is not allowed, so the state is asking the court to fix that and issue a longer parole. The defense is asking the court to keep the original parole term,” Martinez said.

According to the 2024 motion filed in Rose’s case, the state, as advised by the Department of Corrections, is asking for the sentencing to reflect five years parole instead of the two years that was initially issued in 1995.

First-degree murder inmates are eligible for a parole hearing after serving 30 years of their sentence. However, the parole board can grant or deny parole to inmates convicted of first-degree murder since 1980. In 1995, when the teens were sentenced, the maximum penalty for first-degree murder was 60 years. Before 1994, maximum penalty was death. New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009, replacing it with life imprisonment and life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the most serious crimes.

Parolees are subjected to supervised life outside of prison. Rose’s status returns as probation/parole as of 2023, Brown’s returns as probation/parole as of 2023 and Setser returns as probation/parole as of early 2024.