Sentencing for former county judge Cobos reset

The sentencing for former El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos has been reset until January 29th.

Cobos was found guilty of embezzlement Wednesday in Las Cruces District Court.

While the state asked for the maximum penalty in court, Judge Marci Beyer said there are other options she has to consider, such as the victims, who said they want to be made whole again.

“This is a mess,” Beyer said to Cobos in court.

“It is your honor,” Cobos replied.

“You created it,” Beyer said.

On Thursday there was some confusion over how much money is owed to the Chaparral couple for restitution.

“If you’re giving somebody prison time additional prison time it makes restitution significantly harder to accomplish and it’s because the longer somebody’s going to be in prison the harder it is when they get out,” Defense Attorney Joshua Boone said.

Cobos, in handcuffs, faced Judge Beyer and told her he was willing to sign over the deed of the property to the couple. Judge Beyer said she needed more information and time before deciding what his sentence would be.

“I just hope that the court does make the most appropriate sentencing,” Maribel Samaniego, who made monthly payments to Cobos, said. “But we’re mainly trying to be made whole from what was taken from us.”

In court, Cobos told the judge he tried to communicate the best that he could to the couple.

“I sent an email to them in September, I received the summons for foreclosure in June 2013,” Cobos said. “July 2013, Mike and I had an extremely heated argument over the phone and that caused us not to communicate. In September 2013, I sent them an email saying for $2,500 out of the $5,000 they owed me, I will sign over warranty deed. I didn’t get a response.”

The former El Paso County Judge also apologized to the couple for everything that happened.

“I want to say to Mike and Maribel if I may, I apologize for any stress or anxiety or issues that I caused. The notice for foreclosure was as much of a surprise to me as it was to them I was completely caught off guard.”

Cobos faces a maximum 9 year prison sentence.

Prosecutor Davis Ruark says he will seek the maximum punishment and will ask that the sentence run consecutive to the federal 4 year term Cobos is currently serving in Texas.

District Judge Marci Beyer will decide the sentence.

Cobos was on trial, accused of embezzling mortgage payments he got from a Chaparral couple to whom he sold a home. Cobos sold them his late stepmother’s home.

The accusers filed charges after they received a foreclosure notice, but they did not actually lose the home.

On Wednesday morning, the defense called Cobos’ wife Leticia to the stand. She was the one in charge of making those payments to the bank up until 2011. After that, she said, her husband was the one in charge.

Leticia Cobos told the jury the couple, Maribel Samaniego and Jesus Zamora, who testified yesterday, were often late on making payments and it was burdensome. The defense showed a letter she allegedly sent to the bank, claiming the foreclosure notice sent to the Chaparral couple was wrong and that the payments were made.

But when the state showed Leticia receipts of lump sum payments given to her by the couple, she said she couldn’t remember where the money went.

“Was there ever a payment of $3,932 lump sum form made on the mortgage?” Prosecutor Jose Arguello asked.

“I don’t remember,” Leticia Cobos answered.

“And again this is the same time frame as earlier where it was your responsibility to know about that mortgage account right,” Arguello continued.