A Hernandez man took a global plea deal across three cases that resulted in charges of robbery and child abuse, from an alleged theft at Romero’s Fruit Stand, being dismissed.
Ryan Trujillo, 36, pleaded guilty in two cases to two counts of non-residential burglary, one count of larceny between $500 and $2,500 and one count of aggravated fleeing an officer. The plea deal gave him an 18-month suspended sentence to be served on five years of supervised probation.
Per the sentencing documents signed by District Judge Jason Lidyard, if his probation is revoked, he faces a potential three-year enhancement for habitual offender, in addition to the 18-month sentence.
As part of the May 1 global plea deal, the one robbery and two child abuse counts against Trujillo, also known as Ryan Paul Trujillo, were dropped on May 2 and 6 in magistrate court.
Trujillo was then wanted on a warrant for failure to appear in drug court on Sept. 6, which was quashed on Oct. 1. Another bench warrant was issued for his failure to comply with the drug court on Nov. 14. He was arrested on that warrant on Dec. 6 and released on Dec. 8, according to online court records.
According to a criminal complaint from 2023 filed by Española City Police Officer Anthony Martinez, the aggravated fleeing charge stemmed from a pursuit after a Lowe’s Home Improvement employee personally called Martinez to tell him that someone was shoplifting metal tools. The worker approached Trujillo’s vehicle, it reversed and Martinez turned on his lights and siren. Trujillo fled, driving in the wrong lane on North Riverside Drive and Martinez stopped the pursuit.
A short time later, dispatchers called Martinez and told him of a car crash near Big 5 and he found Trujillo had crashed into another car as he fled from him, after he pursued him based on a direct call from a Lowe’s employee, he wrote.
Theft
In the magistrate case that was dropped, Trujillo was initially arrested on March 20 for allegedly stealing a statue from Romero’s Fruit Stand and then pointing what was either a pistol or a Nerf gun at a clerk who tried to open his car door to take it back, while his children were in the backseat.
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Dominic Lopez charged Trujillo the same day with one count of robbery and two counts of intentional child abuse.
Clerk Marcus Garcia told Lopez that Trujillo pointed a gun at him after he tried to get the statue out of the man’s car, where his two children were sitting, Lopez wrote in a criminal complaint for Trujillo’s arrest.
Garcia told Lopez that he was sitting in the store when Trujillo came in, looked around, then left. He had a “weird feeling” and followed him out and saw Trujillo pick up a white statue from a shelf outside the store and walk back to his car. Garcia told him to stop, Lopez wrote.
“Marcus told me when he saw the gun, he said, ‘Are you (expletive) serious?’ Marcus advised when he backed up, the male individual drove off at a high rate of speed,” Lopez wrote.
The rear door was still open when he drove off. Garcia couldn’t describe the gun, but said he saw its barrel. After Trujillo allegedly drove off, Garcia went inside the store and called his boss, who told him to call 911, Lopez wrote.
Deputies found the car with a veterans license plate a short time later in Española and found the two children in the car, ages 8 and 10. They found the statue in the car and a Nerf gun that shoots foam darts, but no gun that fires bullets.
Trujillo was initially held on $5,000 bail before being released on house arrest on March 25.
Two months later, on May 2 and May 6, prosecutors dismissed the charges against Trujillo without prejudice, meaning they could be brought again.
Since that case was filed and subsequently dismissed, Trujillo was arrested on Dec. 9 on a charge of possession of a controlled substance in Santa Fe County, a charge that is pending.
He was also charged with drunk driving on Dec. 15, but that charge was dismissed by prosecutors the same day it was filed.