John Hovey was sixteen when he murdered his parents. According to court documents John Hovey would sneak into his parents bedroom and would open fire killing his parents. This teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison however he was not done killing yet. This teen killer thought a paraplegic inmate was telling on him so he stabbed the inmate over two hundred times and would receive yet another life sentence.
John Hovey 2023 Information
Last Name: HOVEY
First Name: JOHN
Middle Name: RAYMOND
NMCD#: 34833
Offender#: 10056
Offender Status: INMATE
Facility/Region:NMCD CUSTODY
| MURDER 1ST DEGREE (D-202-CR-38516) | GUILTY PLEA |
| CON MURDER 1ST DEGREE (D-1314-CR-98-00179) | GUILTY-JURY |
| MURDER 1ST DEGREE (D-1314-CR-98-00179) | GUILTY-JURY |
| TAMPERING W/EVIDENCE (D-1314-CR-98-00179) | GUILTY-JURY |
MURDER, FIRST DEGREE (CR 38516) Release Date: 99999999
John Hovey More News
As troubled kids go, Johnny Hovey was one of the worst.
So troubled that his mother confided in friends and relatives and a probation officer that she wondered whether he was possessed by the devil, that she thought his hobby of making lifelike corpses and other gruesome props was disturbing, that she feared one day he would kill her.
That last concern proved prophetic.
Before dawn on June 19, 1984, at the family home on Valley Park SW, the 16-year-old Hovey crept into his parents’ bedroom clad only in underwear and his thick, oversized glasses and opened fire.
His father, Raymond Hovey, 36, was shot twice. It took five shots and several hours to kill his mother.
“My son, John Hovey, shot us,” Nancy Hovey, 37, told the first Albuquerque police officer to arrive. “Get him before I die.”
The case of Johnny Hovey was extensively covered by the local news media, the photo of the skinny kid with bushy hair and big glasses a near-constant presence on the front pages for months.
Hovey, as the testimony goes, had a knack for making grotesque mannequins and bloody props, including a decomposing, bloody-eyed corpse he named Susan and rolled about the house in his grandmother’s wheelchair.
His mother had gotten rid of the props. That, one relative testified, was something Johnny Hovey could not forgive.
He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in June 1986. A month later, he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Court records show that Hovey was initially transferred to an Oregon prison, then returned. He had also been transferred and returned more than once to a Florida prison (a location he fought hard to be removed from, according to court documents) and one in Washington.
In 1997, an escape plan he is accused of masterminding while incarcerated in New Mexico was thwarted. In 1998, he was accused of stabbing a paraplegic inmate 230 times in New Mexico, and in 2000 he was given an additional life sentence plus 16 years.
That’s the last the public heard about Hovey.
Earlier this month, Roman Garcia of Omnibus Investigations of Santa Fe contacted me about the Hovey case. He had been the initial defense investigator for Hovey, he said, and while cleaning out files, he had come across a document he thought Hovey might want. He didn’t specify what the document was.
He tried to locate Hovey on the state Department of Corrections website but found nothing. A Department of Corrections employee he spoke with told him she could find no record of Hovey’s ever having been in the New Mexico prison system.
“I reminded her the he got escape charges, filed a tort claim against (the prison warden), had habeas actions and even killed another prisoner while incarcerated,” Garcia said in an email. “Her refrain: ‘Oh, really? He was never here.’ ”
It’s as if Hovey had never existed.
It may seem that way to the public when an inmate is transferred out of or into New Mexico to serve out a prison sentence through an interstate compact.
“It can be difficult for not only the survivor but the family of the inmate in that often they are not sure when or where an inmate might be taken out of state,” said Joan Shirley, victim advocate for the Resource Center for Victims of Violent Death.
Currently, 76 inmates convicted in New Mexico are incarcerated out of state, while 83 inmates from out of state are serving their time in New Mexico facilities, said Alex Tomlin, public affairs director for the Department of Corrections.
Frequently Asked Questions
John Hovey FAQ
John Hovey 2021
John Hovey is incarcerated within the New Mexico Department Of Corrections
John Hovey Release Date
John Hovey is serving life without parole
John Hovey More News
A man serving three consecutive life sentences for murder asked a judge Monday to bring him back to New Mexico from a Florida prison where he says he’s been treated inhumanely.
John Hovey, 34, was sentenced to life in prison by a Valencia County jury in July, 2000, for killing a fellow inmate, Tim Lucero, at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas. Testimony at Hovey’s trial revealed Hovey and another inmate stabbed Lucero over 230 times while Lucero was sitting in his wheelchair in his prison cell.
Hovey, who, at the time of Lucero’s murder, was serving two life sentences for killing his parents in Albuquerque almost 20 years ago,, testified Monday he was not receiving proper psychological treatment in the Florida prison system.
District Court Judge John Pope didn’t make a decision Monday as to whether he’ll bring Hovey back to New Mexico. After hearing Hovey testify about Florida’s alleged prison conditions, Pope said he would take the matter under advisement for 10 days.
“Mr. Hovey isn’t my concern,” Pope said. “I have no sympathy for him. He does not have a right to say where he’s going, but I do want to make sure he’s not subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. I don’t want an inmate or guard killed because he (Hovey) gets depressed.”
Hovey, who didn’t testify at his own trial, took the stand and described the lack of medical and psychological treatment he’s received after his 2000 conviction. He testified he has been transported 11 different times to several New Mexico prisons as well as several prisons in Texas and Arizona and three prisons in Florida.
Hovey said he’s being housed in “close management” (solitary confinement) and only gets to see a doctor once a month for two or three minutes at a time. He said he isn’t offered psychological treatment in the Florida prison because he’s from New Mexico.
“All the time I was there, I was only treated twice,” Hovey said. He also testified that, because he is in “close management,” he’s not allowed his eye glasses, letters, books or attorney/client interaction and is kept in an unventilated cell without air conditioning. He also testified he’s not allowed an am/fm radio or television set and is only allowed one hour of recreation per week.
“I was never given a reason why I was sent to Florida,” Hovey said. “They (corrections officials) told me different lies. They first said New Mexico sent me to Florida for my own protection, and then they said I was a threat to New Mexico.
“This has messed me up quite a bit,” Hovey said. “I’m worse than I was before.”
Under cross examination, Hovey told Deputy District Attorney Ron Lopez that he was wrongfully convicted of killing his parents in 1984. He told Lopez he didn’t remember killing Lucero but said, after his trial in 2000, “I have no doubt I was involved.”
“I don’t agree I’m still a high security risk,” Hovey said. “I feel I’m more of a threat to myself.”
Lopez believes that the only reason Hovey wants to return to New Mexico is that if he kills again in Florida, he would be more likely to be sentenced to death.
“He shouldn’t be allowed to dictate to the state of Florida how he should be treated,” Lopez said. “He’s just not happy about being in Florida.”
Hovey’s attorney, Kari Converse, told Pope that her client’s constitutional rights are being violated in the Florida prison system. She said her client is being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
Lopez told Pope that, if he allows Hovey to come back to New Mexico because he doesn’t like how he’s being treated, the court will be inundated with requests from everyone in prison who wants to come back to New Mexico.
John Hovey Videos
