A 40-year-old Oakland, California man is wanted on a state-wide warrant for allegedly absconding from his probation after he walked away from a drug treatment program.
William Vasquez was charged with attempted first degree murder in July 2023 for shooting Mario Zubia-Talavera in the leg. Officers were eventually able to track him down through his fingerprints, after he was booked into the Santa Fe County Detention Center as “John Doe,” according to court records.
The victim told police at the time, that Vasquez came to his house, knocked on his door, told him he owed someone money and shot him, hitting his leg. The victim’s girlfriend told officers that her boyfriend sold fentanyl, had a gambling problem and owed “some Mexicans” about $50,000, according to court records.
Vasquez, also known as William Joseph Sanchez III, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon on Nov. 20, 2024 and admitted to previously being convicted of evading a police officer in 2018 in California, unlawful taking a vehicle in 2016 in California and vehicle theft in 2015 in California, making him a “habitual offender,” according to the plea deal.
Per the plea deal, a sentence of seven years was suspended, he was given credit for just under a year of time served and ordered to spend an additional 21 days in jail, followed by five years of probation. The habitual offender enhancement was “held in abeyance” at the initial sentencing.
In January, the state corrections department filed a “major violation report” and asked that a warrant be issued for his arrest.
As part of the plea deal, Vasquez was to spend two years in the Delancey Street Foundation program. On Jan. 27, the Española probation office received an email that he had “walked away from the program and is now considered a “split-tee,” Probation Officer Richard Gonzales wrote.
“Probationer Vasquez is now considered an absconder from supervision,” he wrote.
District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer issued a bench warrant on Jan. 29, only valid within New Mexico for his arrest on the alleged probation violation.
Prosecutors also filed to have Sommer revoke Vasquez’s probation and sentence him to jail on his remaining sentence, which could include the eight-year enhancement for being a habitual offender.
Vasquez is still wanted on the warrant.
Past SUN reports were used in this story.