Gregory James Greenawalt, 38, male, was out with friends on the night of September 29, 2006, at the Uptown Bar and Grill in Albuquerque. A band was playing and the evening drew a crowd, but tensions flared inside the bar when fans turned on one another. Bouncers broke up the altercation and ushered those involved outside. Minutes later in the parking lot, witnesses said Greenawalt approached another man from the dispute, Marvin Gomez.
According to investigators, Gomez produced a shotgun and fired, striking Greenawalt in the chest. Greenawalt was rushed to University of New Mexico Hospital, where he died from his injuries that night.
Police said Gomez fled the scene but was arrested over the weekend that followed. He was booked into custody and appeared in court on an open count of murder, with bond set at $250,000. The early case narrative described a bar fight that spilled into the parking lot, a brief confrontation, and then the fatal blast from a shotgun that ended Greenawalt's life.
The case moved through the courts over the next two years. In 2008, a jury convicted Gomez of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence for the killing of Greenawalt. Trial testimony recounted the barroom scuffle, the ejections by security, and the encounter near Gomez's vehicle. Gomez claimed self-defense, saying he retrieved a shotgun from his truck because he saw Greenawalt moving toward him with something in his hand. A knife was found near Greenawalt's body, but bystanders did not report seeing a weapon in his hand before the shot.
In 2011, the New Mexico Court of Appeals reversed Gomez's convictions and sent the case back for a new trial. The appellate court found that improper character evidence had been admitted at trial, concluding that the questioning used to impeach Gomez strayed beyond what the rules allow. With the convictions vacated and the matter remanded, the record shows that at least one suspect—Marvin Gomez—had been arrested, charged, and initially convicted in Greenawalt's death, before those convictions were overturned on appeal and the case returned to the district court for further proceedings.
