Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Alexandra Naranjo bound over a Velarde woman on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of child abuse for allegedly pointing a gun at her neighbor’s family.
Florence Sanchez, 49, was initially charged with five counts of aggravated assault and two count of child abuse. Following a preliminary hearing at the end of August, Naranjo dismissed three of the aggravated assault charges and ordered her bound over to district court on the remaining four charges.
District Judge Anastasia Martin arraigned Sanchez on Sept. 10, where she pleaded not guilty. She set her conditions of release on Sept. 18. Sanchez has been out of jail on her own recognizance after Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid was “contacted” by police and ordered her released instead of booked into the Rio Arriba County Jail, citing how busy Easter is.
Among the conditions, Sanchez is not allowed to possess any firearms, drink, return to the house where she allegedly threatened the family, or get arrested again and she is ordered to have no contact with five of the alleged victims.
“The defendant shall not yell at anybody on the property,” Martin wrote in the amended release order filed on Sept. 18.
New Mexico State Police Officer Jacob Pino arrested Sanchez April 20 after being sent to the Velarde house in the afternoon, after the neighbor called 911.
She told Pino that she had her family over for Easter and when she opened the door to greet them, Sanchez was waving a black handgun in the air, then pointed it at her and her family members, Pino wrote in court documents.
The neighbor told the officer that everyone “dropped to the ground for safety” once Sanchez allegedly pointed the gun at them, and then, she called 911, Pino wrote.
When Pino went to Sanchez’s house, she was emotional and crying and she told Pino that “she had ‘a lot going on,’” he wrote.
Sanchez’s past state criminal record has a single arrest for petty misdemeanor battery in 2011 that was dismissed by the prosecutor.