Friday, October 03, 2008
From the Albuquerque Journal:
New Suspect in Yi Killings
By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer
A suspect awaiting trial in the shooting death of a newlywed earlier this year may have been involved in five other killings, including the brutal 2007 slayings of a prominent Korean-American couple in the Northeast Heights.
All the victims were killed in their homes. In addition to the newlywed and the elderly Korean couple, they include a retired elementary school teacher and an interior designer.
It appears that detectives are prepared to charge Clifton Bloomfield, 39, in the 2007 deaths of Tak and Pung Yi. There were signs that the couple had been savagely beaten and that Mrs. Yi had been sexually assaulted.
Two traveling magazine salesmen — Travis Rowley and Michael Lee — have already been charged in the Yi deaths.
Bloomfield became a suspect in the Yi killings earlier this summer when forensic scientists were going through evidence in the double homicide. Detectives entered DNA collected from one of the Yis into a national database and got a match to Bloomfield, whose DNA was on file in a federal database from a previous conviction.
Police officials confirmed the DNA link.
The Journal has also learned that police are looking into Bloomfield’s possible involvement in at least three more homicides: the 2005 killings of Josephine Selvage and Carlos Esquibel and the 2004 death of Emery Julian.
Charging Bloomfield in the Yi and other cases could be a political lightning rod.
Bloomfield was on probation after an armed robbery plea at the time of the Yi killings and the death of newlywed Scott Pierce.
Mayor Martin Chávez had cited Bloomfield as an example when he held a news conference in July criticizing judges for sentencing repeat offenders to probation and letting them out on what he called low bonds.
Police officials said they have no plans to drop charges against Rowley and Lee. But Rowley’s attorney has filed a lawsuit against APD and the District Attorney’s Office claiming they withheld evidence, including DNA evidence against a suspect who isn’t named in the suit.
That suspect is Bloomfield, who was arrested in June in connection with the death of Pierce, a nurse who had just moved into a home on Hannett NE with his wife a month earlier.
That deadly attack appears to have been a mistaken identity revenge killing.
According to court records, Bloomfield, 39, and Jason Skaggs, 35, intended to kill another man who had lived in the home before Pierce and his wife moved in.
In the other unsolved cases:
Emery Julian, 39, was found dead with a bullet wound to his head in his Chelwood Park NE apartment in October 2004.
Esquibel and Selvage were strangled inside their homes three days apart in October 2005. Esquibel was a 37-year-old interior designer and Selvage was an 81-year-old retired elementary school teacher. Police are still testing DNA taken from Selvage’s home.
At the time of the killings, police said they didn’t believe the Esquibel and Selvage slayings were related.
Election politics
District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said Thursday that she believed Bloomfield was involved in the Yi killings along with Rowley and Lee, but declined further comment.
“It would jeopardize the ongoing investigation if I comment at this time,” Brandenburg said. “There has been no (plea) agreement reached at this time, and it would be inappropriate for me to do so with the investigation.”
Meanwhile, Rowley’s attorney, Stephen Aarons, learned of the DNA match in the Yi case and filed a motion last month to have the charges against his client dismissed.
That motion has since been sealed by District Court Judge Reed Sheppard, who is presiding over the cases against Rowley and Lee.
Brandenburg’s challenger in the Nov. 4 election, Lisa Torraco, has criticized Brandenburg about how she has handled repeat offenders. One of the examples she has cited was Bloomfield, who was on probation for armed robbery at the time he was arrested in connection with the killing of Scott Pierce.
Bloomfield was also on probation at the time the Yis were killed.
“I am doing my job, and I am sorry I am running for re-election,” Brandenburg said in response to Torraco’s criticism. “It is critical we handle the case and do the right things for the right reasons, and the election has nothing to do with that.”
No stranger
Bloomfield, who was earlier described by police as someone with links to white supremacist groups, is no stranger to law enforcement.
In July 2007, he pleaded no contest to robbery with a deadly weapon in connection to the Nov. 29, 2005, home invasion robbery of Edwin and Rupe Garcia.
The plea deal set a maximum of three years of prison. District Court Judge Albert S. “Pat” Murdoch sentenced Bloomfield to four years’ probation and 201 days of community custody, which is similar to house arrest.
Bloomfield was given “good time” credit and was released from community custody 100 days early. Had he not been given credit, he would have been in the community custody program when the Yis were killed.
Brandenburg said her office agreed to the plea deal because prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence and would likely have lost at trial.
At the time of the arrest, police said they had several tips and good victim identification. However, Brandenburg said testimony by the elderly victims would not have held up in court.
“We had no witnesses, no fingerprints and no DNA,” Brandenburg said. “It was that (the plea) or nothing.”
According to court documents, Bloomfield apparently gained entrance to the Garcias’ home, which was listed for sale, by posing as a potential buyer.
He took a tour of the home, took out a handgun and held it to the husband’s neck, then ordered the couple into a storage room and took their wedding ring and other jewelry and valuables along with $140 in cash, according to court records.
Police have said that Bloomfield has an extensive criminal history in Arizona, where he did prison time. He has multiple arrests in Arizona for burglary, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault on a correction officer and theft by control.
