SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio family is demanding answers after federal prosecutors moved to throw out the convictions of two New Mexico police officers found guilty in the tasing death of a local man — and the family says no one told them it was coming.
Hector Nava, a San Antonio native and father of five, died on July 31, 2021, after being tased 14 times during a traffic stop in Jal, New Mexico. He was working an oil field safety job at the time.
Two officers — Ceasar Enrique Mendoza and Robert Edward Embly — were convicted by a federal jury in February 2025 on criminal civil rights charges. A third officer, Corey Patrick Saffell, pleaded guilty and testified against the other two. Sentencing was scheduled for June 2025 but was never completed.
On Aug. 5, 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed an unopposed motion to dismiss all charges against Mendoza and Embly after a jury had already found them guilty.
In their own court filing, prosecutors wrote that “the government has concluded that defendants Embly and Mendoza received an unfair trial,” adding that the government “erroneously induced” the court to exclude evidence of the victim’s drug use and cause of death during trial.
Nava’s sister, Betsy Nava-Flores, said the family learned about the move just days before it happened on a Zoom call with the lead prosecutor.
“She basically told us, ‘Hey, this is going to happen, and I’m not opposed to it,’” Nava-Flores said. “That was the first time she spoke to us, and I just got a sick feeling. I said we’re alone. There’s nobody going to speak for my brother.”
The family hired attorney Israel Chávez, who filed a motion to enforce their rights under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act, arguing the government failed to meaningfully consult the family before making its decision.
“The government has made a lot of decisions — unprecedented decisions — decisions that prosecutors in the office have said they’ve never done in the history of their career — without meaningfully conferring with the Nava family,” Chávez said.
The lead prosecutor on the case, assistant U.S. attorney Maria Armijo, told the family she had never filed a motion to dismiss after a conviction in her 22 years with the office, according to Nava-Flores.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Strickland has not yet ruled on the dismissal. In response to the family’s motion, she appointed John Anderson — a former U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico originally named by President Donald Trump — to argue against the dismissal in court.
Chávez called the appointment significant.
“Not only did she appoint counsel, she appointed the former United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico to brief this,” he said. “It appears to me the judge wants the full story on the record before she makes a decision.”
Chávez also warned of broader consequences if the officers ultimately face no prison time.
“Not only do I think there’s a chance they won’t face prison time,” he said, “but I think there’s a chance they could go back to being officers in New Mexico or somewhere else.”
The Nava family previously reached a $5 million wrongful death settlement tied to the case. Nava-Flores said the fight was never about money.
“This is much bigger than us,” she said. “Nobody has seen a verdict completely dismissed — never after conviction and verdict. If this can happen to Hector, it’s happening more and more.”
KSAT reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Las Cruces for comment. A spokesperson responded via email, pointing to the office’s court filings as its official statement and declining further comment.
A ruling from Strickland has not been scheduled.
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