A Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputy responded to an overdose on Aug. 10 at the Rio Arriba County Detention Center, but the man who allegedly overdosed denied taking anything and said he didn’t know what was happening.
Deputy Alfonso Murillo arrived at the RACDC and spoke with shift supervisor Samantha Cordova, who said they had administered four doses of Naloxone to Vicente Wayne Sanchez, of Corrales. After the Naloxone was administered, the man regained consciousness.
She told the deputy that trustee Jerry Velarde told the control one officer that an inmate who’d been transported to the jail earlier was unresponsive and on the top bunk in his cell, Murillo wrote in his incident report. Sanchez’s cellmate, Noah Montoya, told Velarde what was happening with the man.
Murillo went into the cell the two men shared and jail staff told him they had inspected it and didn’t find anything in it.
“I spoke with Noah, who advised me that upon both inmates being booked and placed into the cell, he observed Vicente inspecting the cell and looking around the cell,” Murillo wrote. “When Noah states that Vicente showed him a pill of some sort and asked if he would want it, Noah stated that he denied and asked where he had gotten it from, which he stated he got it from one of the patrol units that he was transported in.”
Murillo then spoke with Sanchez about how and what he had taken into the jail and how he got it in there. However, he said he didn’t know what was going on and didn’t remember taking anything. He was questioned multiple times and continued to deny that anything happened, the report said.
Murillo wrote that Montoya and Sanchez were both arrested on Aug. 10; Montoya was arrested by an officer with the Española Police Department, while Sanchez was arrested by Deputy Angel Varela.
“Both individuals were transported by Deputy Varela earlier in the day to the junction of State Road 84 and State Road 96, where I met with Deputy Varella (sic), where the two individuals listed above were placed into my unit and transported the rest of the way to the Rio Arriba County Detention Center.”
Murillo reviewed the body scans of Sanchez and Montoya, but didn’t see anything in them.