Biography
Manuel Avitia was a Gallup, New Mexico miner prosecuted after the April 4, 1935 confrontation over the eviction and arrest of Victor Campos. Sheriff M. R. Carmichael and miner Ignacio Velarde were killed, and Solomon Esquibel later died of his wounds. Avitia was among the defendants held on murder charges. At the Aztec trial on October 17, 1935, he, Juan Ochoa and Leandro Velarde were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to forty-five to sixty years in the Santa Fe penitentiary by Judge James B. McGhee. Avitia signed a letter from prison with Ochoa and Velarde in 1936. The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld his conviction in 1937. Governor John E. Miles pardoned him and Ochoa in 1939 on condition that they leave New Mexico.
David Clendennen's account in the January 1936 Labor Defender, page 13, reports that the Aztec jury recommended mercy when convicting Avitia, Juan Ochoa and Leandro Velarde, while acquitting seven other defendants. It describes local farmers' and miners' solidarity with the accused and criticism of the judge's instruction concerning state witnesses. No additional sentence or custody date is supplied.
Daily Worker, February 18, 1936, page 5: The Gallup Defense Committee reported that the appeal of Ochoa, Manuel Avitia and Leandro Velarde was expected to be heard in May by the New Mexico Supreme Court. It identified the law firm of former Assistant Attorney General William J. Donovan as handling the appeal and legal defense, and urged funds for expenses. The scheduled hearing is not treated as an actual decision or release, and the repeated forty-five-to-sixty-year imposed terms are not counted as time served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n042-NY-feb-18-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The April 20, 1935 Daily Worker named Manuel Avitia among the Gallup defendants facing first-degree murder proceedings in Santa Fe after the early-April confrontation at the courthouse. The April 19 report described a preliminary hearing, with forty-five defendants appearing and three unavailable through wounds or illness. The report establishes charges and hearing participation, but does not individually establish continued physical detention for every person in its roster. No complete term or exact arrest date is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n095-NAT-apr-20-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=1
Page 1’s May 10 Santa Fe dispatch individually identifies this Gallup defendant as held without murder bail; Unemployed Miners Union member. It describes fourteen workers held in the state penitentiary death-house area awaiting trial, ten on first-degree murder accusations and four on escape accusations. Pretrial placement in that area does not mean a death sentence was imposed. Bail set does not establish bail posting; later dispositions in the existing record remain distinct. Page 8 calls for trade-union defense. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n113-NAT-may-11-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 8’s Aztec report individually names this defendant among three convicted of second-degree murder in the Gallup case, with a recommendation for clemency. It prints Leandro Velvarde, matched to the existing Velarde defendant. It reports two hours and thirty-two minutes of deliberation excluding dinner, intended state Supreme Court appeals, and Judge James B. McGhee’s warning against demonstrations. The issue is dated October 17 and uses last-night/today wording without a separate dispatch date; this relative wording is retained without silently replacing the existing October 17 trial chronology. This early verdict report does not yet state the later forty-five-to-sixty-year sentence or actual time served. Source: https://newspapers.swco.ttu.edu/bitstreams/34268242-ac0d-472e-8d03-7eb5b704a2c0/download
The October 20 Santa Fe report names this defendant among the three convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to forty-five to sixty years at hard labor. The defense was preparing habeas corpus proceedings to reduce bond pending appeal. The article attributes Sheriff Carmichael’s death to deputies’ crossfire; that is the newspaper’s defense account. An appeal campaign or proposed bond reduction is not physical discharge. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n253-NAT-oct-21-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=4
Page 4 reports the Denver Gallup Defense Conference, sixty delegates from twenty-three organizations, demanding freedom and reduction of the $25,000 bond for each of the three convicted miners. It accurately gives the imposed forty-five-to-sixty-year term, announces state Supreme Court appeal support, $500 fundraising and a 50,000-signature pardon petition. The article says the Aztec trial ended October 17, with seven acquittals and three second-degree-murder convictions with clemency recommended. These advocacy demands are not posted bail, release, a granted pardon or actual decades served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n263-NAT-oct-31-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Daily Worker, April 25, 1935, pages 1–2: The April 24 Santa Fe report individually lists this Gallup defendant among ten bound over after the preliminary murder hearing, held without bail. It reports murder accusations dismissed against thirty-eight of the original forty-eight and four other defendants retained under $500 bail on prisoner-escape accusations. Its overlapping reference to the ten as held for assisting escape is preserved as the report's wording, without replacing the later individualized charging and trial history. The paper alleges deputy gunfire killed the sheriff and miners; that account is attributed. Continued detention, not a final imposed sentence or exact discharge, is established. Three unnamed released defendants reportedly were immediately seized for deportation; those unnamed transfers are not assigned to this person. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n099-NAT-apr-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Labor Defender, February 1936, PDF page 11: The Gallup penitentiary photograph caption identifies him fifth from left, at far right. The joint Christmas letter on PDF 22 confirms ongoing confinement and five-dollar relief gifts, without exact endpoints. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn02-feb-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=11
Gallup jail-start date
An appeal dated September 24, 1935 at New Mexico State Prison, Santa Fe, and printed on October 1, individually lists Manuel Avitia among its ten signatories. The prisoners state that they have been jailed since April 4, 1935. This first-person custody statement supports recording April 4 as the beginning of confinement in the Gallup case. It does not establish a physical release date, a completed sentence or present-day custody. The scheduled October trial is not used as release.
Daily Worker, October 1, 1935, original PDF pages 1–2, especially the complete signed appeal on page 2. Some page 1 text is damaged in the surviving scan; the date and signatures on page 2 are legible and were checked visually.
Labor Defender, January 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Contemporary Gallup defense account
Printed Manuel Avita, described as married with one child and member of the ILD and Unemployment Council. The first group, containing this name, is described as held without murder bail. The pamphlet says all ten also faced aiding-escape allegations with an additional $1,000 bond. The printed roster actually contains nine names despite referring to ten defendants and “these four” before listing only three in the first group. No missing individual is supplied by inference. These early bail conditions are distinct from later post-trial bonds; neither the bail amount nor the advocacy account establishes a release or time served.
Louis Colman, Night Riders in Gallup (1935), pages 3, 11–12.
Daily Worker, May 11, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The ILD appeal describes eight-year-old Junior Avitia and his mother relying on relief while his father, one of the three Gallup miners, was at Santa Fe under a forty-five-to-sixty-year sentence. This matches Manuel Avitia’s existing Gallup case. The report’s more-than-two-years absence is approximate elapsed time, not a complete custody total. The allegation that the sheriff was shot by his own men is attributed to the defense appeal.
Daily Worker, October 31, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, April 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
