A 34-year-old Hernandez man will be held in the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas for at least the next nine months, after being found dangerous and not competent to stand trial.
District Judge Jason Lidyard ordered Rodney Gallegos be held at the secure psychiatric facility following a hearing on his competency on May 8. Since Gallegos is being committed, he is also subject to involuntary treatment.
Gallegos’ attorney, Samuel Ruyle, and prosecutor Elizabeth Counce both stipulated that Gallegos is not competent to stand trial and that he is dangerous.
That May 8 hearing followed another competency hearing on April 16.
Under New Mexico law, the psychiatric facility is supposed to craft a plan to get Gallegos competent to stand trial and check in with the court in nine months.
Gallegos was bound over in 2023 on charges of attempt to commit first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence.
He is accused of stabbing his cousin after the man called him an expletive, and was then arrested by New Mexico State Police.
The case was the source of some confusion after Gallegos was initially charged with first-degree murder even though the person he stabbed, Moses Gallegos, didn’t die.
After Gallegos was found and arrested by State Police officers, he allegedly said “a statement like ‘I sticked that guy’ or something to that effect,’” Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jonathan Coriz wrote in court documents.
After being read his Miranda rights, including his right to remain silent, he told deputies that he stabbed Moses Gallegos three times in the neck with his “shank.”
“Mr. Rodney Gallegos made several statement like ‘I f—ked him up’ and physically demonstrated the act of how both were positioned at the time of the stabbing,” Coriz wrote. “Mr. Rodney Gallegos demonstrated physically on Deputy M. Vigil how he executed the stabbing.”
Rodney Gallegos allegedly told deputies that he wished he could have killed his cousin, who was calling him names.
SUN Managing Editor Jennifer Garcia contributed to this report.