Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 27-year-old Medanales man for allegedly attacking his girlfriend and her mother’s two tenants with a knife, after the girlfriend went to collect their rent.
Deputy Dustin Hall arrested Adam Bustamante on one count of aggravated battery against a household member with a deadly weapon and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Hall was initially sent to a house in Medanales on Oct. 22 for a report that a woman’s boyfriend was threatening her and two others with a knife, he wrote in a criminal complaint.
“(The victim) reported that Mr. Bustamante became agitated when two neighbors came to pay rent, which (the victim) was collecting on behalf of her mother, the landlord.” Hall wrote. “Mr. Bustamante allegedly retrieved two knives and attempted to attack the neighbors and (the victim), resulting in a physical altercation.”
The girlfriend was cut on her arm from while trying to disarm him. She declined medical attention and told Hall she is a nurse. She then gave Hall the code to enter the house and said Bustamante was inside and he didn’t have a phone. The two neighbors, who “primarily” spoke Spanish, corroborated her account, he wrote.
Deputies tried to get Bustamante to come out and after 15 minutes, a deputy piloted a drone into the house to see what was going on. It found Bustamante asleep in the bedroom. Deputies then formed a team to go into the house and arrest him, he wrote.
“Upon entry, Mr. Bustamante was located in the bedroom and appeared disoriented upon waking,” Hall wrote. “He was compliant and taken into custody without incident.”
After being read the Miranda Warning, he told them he had been asleep, didn’t know anything about the incident and didn’t know his girlfriend had been cut. When deputies searched the house, they found blood droplets in multiple areas, consistent with the victim’s account of the alleged attack. Two knives were in a sink, which all three victims identified as the ones used, he wrote.
The two neighbors told deputies that Bustamante offered a pill to one of them, which they declined and then the girlfriend got rid of the pill, which led to Bustamante becoming more agitated, he wrote.
“They also stated that Mr. Bustamante had been drinking and may have spiked a drink with an unknown substance,” Hall wrote.
All three of them told deputies they wanted to press charges and the girlfriend said during a previous incident, someone’s collarbone was broken, although it is unclear whose. When Hall handcuffed Bustamante, he asked to have his hands in front of his body because of a broken collarbone, which Hall obliged.
Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Alexandra Naranjo ordered Bustamante to be released the same day, Oct. 22, and ordered him to report to pre-trial services for supervision and have no contact with the victims. A preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday (12/17).