GUILTY NM - Craig Cavanaugh, 44, Mazatzal Casino, Payson, 4 July 2019

[PommyMommy]

MAY 12, 2020
Continuing updates including Barksdales' federal case
Shawn Eckard, 51, and Jason Johnson, 47, have been indicted for murder by a Navajo County grand jury in connection with the strange case of 44 year-old Craig Cavanaugh of Farmington, New Mexico, whose dead body was found near Heber on August 5, 2019. They are both convicted felons and were already serving time in state prisons (Arizona and Colorado, respectively) at the time that they were indicted.

Reports say that detectives developed information that two the suspects were with Cavanaugh in Payson, and from one of those suspects got information that led to the discovery of Cavanaugh’s body off Highway 260 in Heber. The body was identified several weeks later through fingerprints.

After the Navajo County grand jury indicted him for the first degree murder of Cavanaugh, a Class 1 felony, the court issued an arrest warrant which Eckard was served with while he was in prison in Arizona, doing time for a felony committed in Gila County.

The second suspect, Jason E. Johnson, pleaded guilty to three felonies in the La Plata County District Court in Colorado on March 3, 2020: Car theft, and a weapons charge. He was sentenced March 5, 2020 and is serving 11 years in a Colorado prison.

Like in Eckard’s case, the Navajo County Superior Court issued a warrant for Johnson’s arrest after it received the grand jury’s indictment. According to a CCSO press release, Johnson was served with that warrant the day he was sentenced in Colorado, but Navajo County court records do not reflect that.

Eckard’s next date in Navajo County is May 14. That hearing is about what effect Eckard’s Gila County felony conviction (for which he is now in prison) will have in the murder case. Court records indicate no activity on Johnson’s case since the warrant issued in February, 2020.

 

[PommyMommy]

APR 29, 2022

Murderer of missing man guilty

HOLBROOK — On Aug. 5, 2019, in a forest near Heber, authorities found the body of New Mexico father Craig Cavanaugh, 44, who had been missing since the July 4th

www.wmicentral.com

[...]

On Feb. 22, a Navajo County jury returned its unanimous guilty verdict of first-degree murder against Johnson. He was sentenced on March 4 to a term of “natural life” meaning that as long as Johnson is alive, he will be incarcerated.

Eckard is to face a jury in Navajo County on Aug. 16. ...

[...]

Eckard has a hearing later this month, a necessary step before trial wherein he will be informed on the record by a judge of the maximum sentence he could get if a jury finds Eckard guilty. If there is a plea offer on the table, he will be informed of its terms and the time and date the offer expires, never to return. He will most certainly know that Johnson went the jury trial route and as a result, will die in prison. Whether that makes whatever plea offer is on the table more acceptable to Eckard remains to be seen.

 

[PommyMommy]

SEP 9, 2022

Jury finds 2nd man guilty of murder

HOLBROOK — A Navajo County jury last month unanimously returned its guilty verdict against Shawn Eckard for the felony murder of New Mexico father Craig Cavanaugh, who had been missing

www.wmicentral.com

A Navajo County jury last month unanimously returned its guilty verdict against Shawn Eckard for the felony murder of New Mexico father Craig Cavanaugh, who had been missing since the July 4th holiday in 2019.

... Evidence included a gun found in a tool box of sorts in Eckard’s truck and Eckard’s phone found in the victim’s truck.

[...]

Recent court filings shed some light on the details of the crime. ... Detectives interviewed Eckard while he was in Gila County Jail awaiting the resolution of a weapons and drug charge he picked up in that county.

The first interview was July 19, 2019; the second on an unknown date which Eckard initiated; he had called the detectives saying that he wanted to talk again. The third was on Aug. 5, after Cavanaugh’s body had been found. Eckard told detectives that he and co-defendant Johnson “drove to some woods north of Payson to meet (Johnson’s) dealers from New Mexico to sell the meth,” and that Cavanaugh’s truck was there. Eckard claims he went for a walk down a trail and after about 15 to 20 minutes, “heard two gunshots (and) went running up there (but) didn’t see nothing.” He said he saw a “log” and believed it was Cavanaugh’s body.

[...]

Before the grand jury indicted the two, Eckard was arrested in Gila County on Aug. 15, 2019, for weapons violations, (he is a thrice-convicted felon) theft and a drug charge. Court records stated that these violations happened on July 4, 2019, the very day Cavanaugh went missing in Payson. Eckard was held in the county jail in Globe from the time of his August arrest through December, at which time went to prison per a plea deal on the Gila County theft and drug charges.

After the Navajo County grand jury indicted the pair and the court issued warrants for their arrest, Eckard was served with the warrant while in the Arizona Department of Corrections. By contrast, Johnson was served with the arrest warrant while in the Colorado Department of Corrections where he was serving an 11-year sentence; in March 2020, Johnson had pleaded guilty to three felonies in the La Plata County District Court in Colorado for theft, drugs and a weapons charge. Johnson was arrested on Oct. 3, 2019, in Colorado for the weapons charge, and in December 2019 on a car-theft charge — just months after Cavanaugh was killed.

[...]

The fact that Eckard is guilty of felony murder, (death of someone during the commission of a felony crime) a Class 1 felony, and Eckard’s lengthy felony record, expect a sentence similar to the one his co-defendant Johnson received, natural life. Sentencing is set for Sept. 27.