A Ranchos de Taos man, accused of stabbing a man to death in the parking lot of a Laundromat at the Ohkay Travel Center, and implicated in the shooting death of two men in Taos, is undergoing a competency evaluation.
Cesar Garcia, 26, has been held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder since March 12. He was arrested for allegedly killing Anthony Velasquez, 32, on Feb. 24, and then fleeing the scene, before he was arrested a short time later.
The Taos County Sheriff’s Office claimed Garcia was driving the vehicle of one of two women found dead in El Prado with gunshot wounds. Ashley Casias, 34, and Anastasia “Stacy” Romo, 39, were found dead in a mobile home, following a welfare check. Garcia has not been charged with their deaths.
According to the court docket, the motion for a psychiatric evaluation was filed on Aug. 14. Following a status hearing on Oct. 6, the case was scheduled for next year, with a tentative trial date of March 9. It’s not clear from court records where the competency proceedings stand.
Normally, competency proceedings put a case on pause until competency has been determined.
In a separate Taos case, where Garcia is accused of stabbing a man with a screwdriver, competency has not been raised.
The Stabbing
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Martinez wrote in a criminal complaint that he was sent to the Ohkay Owingeh Travel Center for a stabbing and the suspect, wearing a red hoodie, ran across the highway. He grabbed his medical bag and used gauze to hold pressure on Velasquez’s wound until medics arrived. They declared him dead three minutes after arriving.
When deputies arrested Garcia at a house near Jackrabbit Trail, they found a bloody knife in his pocket, Martinez wrote.
When Martinez looked at surveillance footage he saw that Velasquez was sitting in the backseat of a car when Garcia started tampering with the rear driver side of the car. Velasquez got out, Garcia ran around to the other side of the car and Velazquez tripped over the curb and fell and as he got back up and ran away, Martinez wrote.
Garcia stabbed toward him multiple times. Velasquez tried to get to the laundromat entrance while Garcia fled the area, the deputy wrote.