Clifton Bloomfield pleaded guilty in October 2008 to five counts of first-degree murder in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The five deaths occurred in four separate events across nearly three years: two in October 2005, a married couple in December 2007, and a fifth person in June 2008. The plea, entered in Bernalillo County District Court, covered ten felonies in all, and it ended the possibility of a death sentence. He received five consecutive life sentences, a total of 195 years.
Carlos Esquibel was 37. He died on October 24, 2005, in Albuquerque. Three days later, on October 27, 2005, Josephine Selvage, who was 81, also died in the city. At the time the two deaths were not tied to each other or to any suspect, and both remained unsolved until Bloomfield's confession in 2008.
Tak Yi, 79, and his wife Pung Yi, 69, died on December 4, 2007. Scott Pierce, 40, died on June 28, 2008. He had been married for six days. His widow later became a public voice on how the case was handled.
Prosecutors described the killing of Scott Pierce as a case of mistaken identity. A co-defendant, Jason Skaggs, was charged in the same death.
Bloomfield had a conviction for a 2005 offense. The two deaths of October 2005 remained unsolved until 2008.
In November 2007 Bloomfield was cast as an extra in Felon, a Sony Pictures film starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff that was shot in New Mexico. By then he had already killed two people. The film's casting director said later that he used thousands of extras and could not afford detailed background checks on each of them. He said he did not expect "the real thing" to come through.
When Tak and Pung Yi died on December 4, 2007, police arrested two men, T.R. and M.L., days later. Prosecutors had charged them in the deaths. DNA evidence later led police to name Bloomfield. M.L. spent 15 months in jail. In June 2011 the city of Albuquerque settled with him for nearly $1 million. The two men are not among the people convicted of the deaths.
After the match, prosecutors said they believed the two men and Bloomfield had acted together, and they said they would not seek the death penalty against the two men. Police said further charges in the Yi case were planned. The Yi family supported removing the death penalty, and the Yi deaths were the only ones among the five that could have carried it under state law.
Scott Pierce died on June 28, 2008. Police arrested Bloomfield and Skaggs within days. He asked for a plea agreement under which he would confess to the Pierce and Yi deaths and to others, including the Esquibel and Selvage deaths, which had been unsolved until that point.
His own lawyer had earlier filed a motion accusing the district attorney of prosecutorial misconduct, alleging that she had repeatedly backed out of plea talks. The lawyer withdrew the motion after the deal was reached. The district attorney denied any political motive.
Bloomfield entered his guilty pleas on a Friday in October 2008 in Bernalillo County District Court. He pleaded to ten felonies, five of them first-degree murder. The sentence was five consecutive life sentences. In exchange, the state dropped its pursuit of the death penalty, and prosecutors agreed to arrange for him to serve the sentence out of state. The total is 195 years.
The plea did not cover the death of a 39-year-old man on October 13, 2004, in Albuquerque. A suspicion of Bloomfield's involvement was mentioned at the time of the plea, and prosecutors did not explain why that death was left out. No charge or conviction in it is on record.
In July 2009 Skaggs pleaded guilty before Judge Ross Sanchez to second-degree murder, with other charges, in the Pierce case. On November 6, 2009, he was sentenced to 30 years and six months, the maximum available under his plea agreement. The widow and the lead homicide detective asked the court for the full term. She said she had accepted the plea deal to spare her family from reliving the loss. The judge called Skaggs a central figure in the tragedy.
In January 2010 Pierce's widow sued the city, the police chief and several detectives. The suit questioned whether Bloomfield, who was on supervised probation, should have been arrested for violations before June 2008, and whether the Yi case had been mishandled. She also said police had not acted on domestic violence incidents involving him. The city settled in early September 2012 for $439,000 and said the settlement was not an admission of liability.
In late 2016 Bloomfield filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to withdraw his guilty pleas. On December 20, 2016, the New Mexico Attorney General's office argued before Judge Benjamin Chavez of the Second Judicial District Court that the petition should be dismissed without a hearing, because the plea and sentencing transcripts refuted his claims. The Attorney General said keeping him in prison was a priority. On May 25, 2017, Judge Chavez denied the petition.
How the 195-year total is made up is not on record. The nature of the five additional felonies is not on record. Bloomfield's date of birth, early life and present prison are not on record. The 2004 death remains outside the plea, and no charge in it has been reported.
October 13, 2004: a 39-year-old man dies in Albuquerque; this death was not part of the plea.
October 24, 2005: Carlos Esquibel, 37, dies in Albuquerque.
October 27, 2005: Josephine Selvage, 81, dies in Albuquerque.
November 2007: Bloomfield is cast as an extra in Felon.
December 4, 2007: Tak Yi, 79, and Pung Yi, 69, die; T.R. and M.L. are charged days later.
June 28, 2008: Scott Pierce, 40, dies; Bloomfield and Jason Skaggs are arrested within days.
October 2008: Bloomfield pleads guilty to ten felonies, five of them first-degree murder; five consecutive life sentences.
July 2009: Skaggs pleads guilty; sentenced November 6, 2009, to 30 years and six months.
January 2010: Pierce's widow files suit against the city; settled September 2012 for $439,000.
June 2011: the city settles with M.L. for nearly $1 million.
December 20, 2016: the state asks that his petition to withdraw the pleas be dismissed.
May 25, 2017: Judge Benjamin Chavez denies the petition.