A man who allegedly killed again while on parole for a 2009 homicide, has been ordered to be held without bail pending trial.
District Judge Jason Lidyard ordered Fabian Gallegos, 38, of Albuquerque, to be held without bail on June 6, four months after a Rio Arriba grand jury indicted him on charges of first degree murder, aggravated burglary, conspiracy to commit residential burglary, first degree kidnapping and three counts of witness intimidation.
The Rio Arriba County grand jury indicted two other men at the same time, Feb. 19, for the beating and asphyxiation death of Christopher Serrano in Chimayó in May 2024.
The grand jury indicted Danny Sanchez, 35, of Hernandez, on charges of second degree murder, aggravated burglary and conspiracy to commit residential burglary.
It indicted Manuel Quintana, 34, of Española, on charges of residential burglary and conspiracy to commit residential burglary.
Gallegos and Sanchez have a tentative trial date of Feb. 9, while Quintana has a tentative trial date of March 9.
Gallegos was initially arrested by New Mexico State Police investigators on Jan. 6 and ordered to be held on $100,000 cash bail by Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid, on a second degree murder charge. Magistrate Judge Alexandra Naranjo then released Gallegos on his own recognizance 14 days later, but ordered him to be on electronic monitoring.
Gallegos was arrested at the Adult Probation office in Española, as he was on parole for the second degree of Gilbert Ellerbe in 2009, after serving a 16-year sentence. He pleaded in that case in 2011.
More than a month after he was arraigned and put on house arrest and three months after he was indicted, prosecutors moved to have Gallegos held without bail as a danger to the community, writing that he “bound, gagged, and brutally beat the victim to death.”
Lidyard recounted the narrative of the killing in the order granting the motion and wrote that the Office of the Medical Investigator determined Serrano died from asphyxiation and blunt force trauma.
“There are issues with portions of the witnesses’ statements, however they corroborate one another,” he wrote.
He also noted Gallegos’s criminal history and “his propensity for violence, and as reflected in the indictment, the Defendant’s threats to harm witnesses.”
Quintana and Sanchez were released pending trial and remain out of jail.
Serrano Found Beaten
The case started on May 14, 2024, when State Police officers found Serrano’s bound and beaten body at his Chimayó home. Officers were trying to arrest him on a warrant charging him with criminal sexual contact, kidnapping and aggravated battery on a household member for an alleged attack on his girlfriend, after she said he took meth and cocaine. That alleged attack on his girlfriend took place on May 7.
The officers found Serrano’s body hog tied, his feet taped together and his hands taped behind his back, with tape around his face and mouth. He was lying face-down in the dirt in front of the house and there was a “large amount of blood” around his head, State Police Agent Daniel Martinez wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant for Gallegos.
An autopsy report listed the cause of death as asphyxial injuries and blunt head trauma, Martinez wrote.
Three months after officers found Serrano’s body, they identified who he had been with the night he was killed, Martinez wrote.
They told State Police officers that they were hanging out with Serrano when there was a knock on the door, Serrano left and never came back and two masked men entered the house. They identified the masked men as Quintana and Sanchez, by their voices and builds, Martinez wrote.
State Police officers found Quintana in Española and interrogated him and he told them Sanchez asked him to take him and Gallegos to Serrano’s house, and that he went into the house to use the bathroom and for a tissue, but denied beating Serrano, Martinez wrote.
Investigators interrogated Sanchez at the Tierra Amarilla Detention Center where he told Martinez that Gallegos went to Serrano’s house because he bought a TV and a gate from him. While they were outside, Sanchez punched Serrano “because he thought Chris said something disrespectful to (Gallegos)” and after the punch, Gallegos told Martinez and Quintana to go inside the house to get the things he bought, Martinez wrote.
As they were leaving, Gallegos was in a panic, telling them to hurry, and drove erratically away from the house. Sanchez referred to Gallegos by the nickname Suave, Martinez wrote.
“Danny said Suave told him ‘The dude wouldn’t shut the (expletive) up, he woke up screaming and (expletive), I had a pipe, and I just kept beating him with the pipe, telling him shut the (expletive) up or I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you, shut the (expletive) up.’” Martinez wrote. “Danny said he told Suave why he would do that, the guy had no business getting hurt like that. Danny said Suave told him ‘Were (sic) good if anything ill just kill the other witnesses.’ Danny said he told Suave ‘no, you are not going to do that.’”
Martinez wrote that Sanchez told him that Gallegos threatened to kill everyone if they ever said anything.