An Española man is facing two felony charges after he allegedly broke into his sister’s house, then started beating down her bedroom door with an ax handle, before he was stopped by his nephew.
New Mexico State Police Recruit Gabriel Ogaldez-Ruiz charged Charles Espinoza, 54, with breaking and entering and criminal damage to property over $1,000, both fourth-degree felonies; and assault, a petty misdemeanor, on Feb. 8.
Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid ordered Espinoza released on his own recognizance three days later, when Ogaldez-Ruiz filed the charges. Espinoza is set for a preliminary examination at 9:30 a.m. April 9, in Española Magistrate Court.
The case was the second in two weeks where Espinoza was accused of breaking into, or trying to break into, a family member’s house.
Ogaldez-Ruiz wrote in a criminal complaint for Espinoza‘s arrest that he was sent to the woman’s house at 6:13 a.m. Feb. 8. The caller said her uncle had broken into her mother’s house and was trying to break down her bedroom door with an ax handle.
Ogaldez-Ruiz arrived, another officer had already put Espinoza in the back of a cruiser. The victim told him that while she was sleeping, she heard her brother banging on the metal rail outside her front door, which woke her up. Then, he started to kick in the front door, forcing his way into the house, Ogaldez-Ruiz wrote.
“After making entry he started hitting her bedroom with an ax handle and saying that he wanted to kill her,” Ogaldez-Ruiz wrote. “He was unable to make entry into her bedroom because her grandson, later identified (male’s name) had entered the home and started speaking to Charles.”
When Ogaldez-Ruiz inspected the bedroom door, he saw two holes above the door handle while a piece of the frame of the front door was lying on the floor nearby. The screen door was pushed in and the ax handle was next to the living room couch, he wrote.
The woman’s daughter, who is also her neighbor, told him that she got a notification from her surveillance camera. When she checked it, she saw her uncle walking around the property and yelling. She showed the footage to Ogaldez-Ruiz and it showed Espinoza using the ax handle to bang on the metal rail outside the house and a motorcycle parked outside, followed by him kicking down the front door, Ogaldez-Ruiz wrote.
The grandson said his mom called him to say his uncle was in his grandma’s house. He went over there and told Espinoza to get out, he wrote.
“He explained that Charles had asked him, ‘do you want to go, do you want to go outside?’” Ogaldez-Ruiz wrote. “He explained that as Charles was asking him he was standing in a bladed stance and put his hands up in a closed fist as a fighting stance.”
Once the pair went outside, Espinoza allegedly attacked his nephew and they grappled, with Espinoza punching him in the chest, he wrote.
A pattern of behavior
State Police officers arrested Espinoza on Jan. 26 on a misdemeanor count of criminal damage to property under $1,000 for a similar pattern of behavior.
State Police Officer Joshua Leyba wrote in a criminal complaint in that case, that a different family member, Espinoza’s niece, reported him trying to break into her house with a screwdriver.
She told the officer that other family members picked him up from the Santa Fe Rehab Center on Jan. 25 and he was acting unusual, but they dropped him off in Española and he got a ride to the family property, where he lived in a different house on the same land.
“(Woman) explained throughout the whole weekend, Charles has been acting unusual by randomly talking to himself, screaming, and being very confrontational with her and other family members who all reside on the same property,” Leyba wrote.
Early in the morning, she woke up to a loud noise at her front door and found Espinoza allegedly trying to use a screwdriver to pry open her screen door. She told him to leave. When she checked her Ring doorbell camera, it captured the incident. Her screen door had minor damage and she wanted to press charges, he wrote.
Leyba then went to talk to Espinoza, who lives two houses down. He allegedly told the officer that he was trying to use keys to enter his own home and then when told about the video, said he did not remember anything and maybe he was sleep walking, he wrote. Leyba then arrested him.
In that case, Madrid also released Espinoza on his personal recognizance. A bench trial was set tentatively set for March 13.