Second UNM student involved in attack of former Aggie Mike Peake takes plea deal
LAS CRUCES – According to a spokesperson from the 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office in Bernalillo County, the University of New Mexico student who lured former New Mexico State basketball player Mike Peake to campus in November took a plea deal for her involvement.
In court on Monday, 18-year-old Mya Hill, who was 17 at the time of the deadly self-defense shooting that involved Peake, admitted to aggravated battery with great bodily harm. She will be on probation until she is 21 years old.
Police believe Hill conspired with UNM students Jonathan Smith, Eli-Sha Upshaw and Brandon Travis to lure Peake to the UNM campus on Nov. 19 in retaliation for a fight involving Peake and Travis at the Oct. 15 football game between New Mexico and New Mexico State at Aggie Memorial Stadium.
The Aggies were in Albuquerque to play rival Lobos. At about 3 a.m., surveillance cameras in the parking lot of the Coronado Hall complex show Peake and Hill walking outside the dormitory. Travis, Upshaw and Smith approached them from behind. Travis pointed a gun at Peake, and Upshaw hit Peake once in the right leg with a baseball bat and again in the abdomen, according to police documents, before Peake started to run.
Travis followed Peake with a gun pointed at him while Peake took out his own gun and the two began shooting at one another. Police say Travis fired "several times" and Peake fired back. Travis, 19, was killed in the shootout and Peake was shot in the leg.
Travis died at the scene.
In May, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office announced that Peake, nor anyone from New Mexico State athletics or men's basketball, would be charged with a crime.
In January, Smith pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery with great bodily harm and tampering with evidence as part of a plea deal. Smith could face up to three years in prison.
On Jan. 9, Upshaw pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated battery, conspiracy and tampering with evidence. Upshaw was released to live with his mother in Maryland and has a pre-trial conference scheduled for March 2024.
Former Las Cruces High, New Mexico State basketball player, Deuce Benjamin lands at New Mexico Junior College
Deuce Benjamin has landed at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs to continue his basketball career.
Benjamin is on the NMJC men's basketball roster after one season at New Mexico State, where he did not play last season.
In June, Benjamin and Shakiru Odunewu, as well as Aggies Hall of Famer William Benjamin, settled a lawsuit for $8 million with the University. William and Deuce Benjamin were awarded $4.125 million according to the settlement agreement that was released by the state's Risk Management Division. Odunewu settled for $3.875 million, per the agreement.
The New Mexico State University Board of Regents was named in an April 19 lawsuit alleging negligence, loss of consortium — or familial relation impacts — sexual assault, battery and false imprisonment, along with former head coach Greg Heiar, former assistant coach Dominique Taylor and former players DeShawndre Washington, Doctor Bradley and Kim Aiken Jr.
Heiar was fired in February of his first season following a New Mexico State University Police report filed by Deuce Benjamin on Feb. 10 alleging multiple incidents that were described as hazing at the time, which also resulted in the cancellation of the rest of the NMSU season.
Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Second UNM student involved in attack of former Aggie Mike Peake takes plea deal
