Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Santa Fe man in Las Cruces after he was accused of kidnapping his pregnant ex-girlfriend on Jan. 4 in Arroyo Seco, then fleeing from police in her vehicle, before jumping out of the car during a chase.
Galen Mason-Muller, 26, was arrested in Las Cruces Jan. 13 on a warrant from that case charging him with false imprisonment, aggravated fleeing an officer, aggravated assault and driving with a suspended license.
Prosecutors are asking a judge to have Mason-Muller held without bail pending trial as a danger to the community.
He is also wanted on a warrant for a petty misdemeanor domestic violence case involving the same victim who applied for a restraining order just a week before the current incident, before asking it be dismissed the following day. A combined dangerousness and preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 2.
Jan. 4 Case
Deputy Brandon Baca was sent to Bar D Four Road in Arroyo Seco on Jan. 4 after the victim’s mother called on behalf of her daughter and said she was in danger, Baca wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant.
She said her daughter broke up with Mason-Muller due to domestic violence incidents and he was threatening to find her and implying he would hurt her. She is 20 weeks pregnant.
Mason-Muller convinced the victim to see him at the AirBnB he was renting and the mother became worried when her daughter turned off her location and then “learned Mr. Mason-Muller forced her to do so,” he wrote.
Then, she saw that text messages were being deleted shortly after being sent. One text read that Mason-Muller was watching over her and was upset she was texting her mother, Baca wrote.
The victim then sent a ping of her location, said she was at a short-term rental and then asked for her mother to call 911 before the messages were deleted. She told deputies her daughter drove there in a silver Chevy Impala. At the scene, deputies found no one, but did find the television on, a programmed paused and duffel bags by the door, he wrote.
While deputies were at the scene, the Impala returned and deputies yelled for it to stop, including State Police officers in three patrol cars.
“The silver Impala accelerated at a high rate of speed and fled the scene,” Baca wrote.
Deputy Joshua Thomas identified the victim in the passenger seat and heard her screaming “Help! Help!” as the car passed and she “appeared ‘terrified,’” he wrote.
State Police officers started to pursue the car but lost it near the intersection of U.S. Highway 84/285 and La Puebla Road, Baca wrote.
Officers and deputies couldn’t identify the driver but it is “beyond reasonable to believe” it was Mason-Muller, he wrote.
Later that night, the deputies found he victim at her father’s house. She told Baca that she had to delete the text messages or else Mason-Muller would “lash out.”
She told Baca that Mason-Muller nearly crashed into multiple vehicles as he fled and nearly lost control of the car multiple times. Shortly afterward, he jumped out of the car, from the driver’s seat, while it was still moving. The victim had to jump from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat to stop the car from crashing. Then, she drove to her dad’s house.
History
The victim called Santa Fe police on Dec. 29 because Mason-Muller threatened her after she tried to return his toolbox. Officers issued an arrest warrant on a petty misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault on a household member.
She told officers that Mason-Muller ran toward her vehicle, tried to open the passenger door, then banged on the window in anger when he realized it was locked. She told officers she believed he would have hit her if it was unlocked. She drove away and Mason-Muller threw two rocks at her car. He called her repeatedly, calling her every minute between 5:10 p.m. and 7:28 p.m., Santa Fe Police Officer Derek Arn wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant.
She recorded a phone conversation with him where he said, “Where the (expletive) are you? I’m gonna show you crazy! You wanna do this? You’re gonna make me psycho. Watch. Where are you?!” he wrote.
When Arn had dispatchers check Mason-Muller’s history, they told him there were two active protection orders against him, he wrote.
A day later, on Dec. 30, the victim applied for a restraining order, writing that he has been controlling and aggressive, made physical threats, and when she tried to break up, he has told her he would find her and “do something.”
She made no mention of the incident the day before.
The restraining order was granted that day but appears never to have been served. He was also, at the time, wanted on a warrant for the case from the day prior.
The following day, Dec. 31, she filed to have the restraining order application rescinded, writing, “I feel that it is unnecessary at this time because me and Galen agreed on being civil for our child and we want our child to have both parents and to work things out,” she wrote.
The dismissal was granted on Jan. 6.
Shot by police
In 2023, police were called to Tesuque after Mason-Muller broke into his girlfriend’s mother’s house, armed with a gun. Police then shot him in the shoulder after he pointed his gun at officers. In that case, he pleaded guilty on Nov. 22, 2024 to aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault on an officer.
He had been held without bail since he was shot on July 24, 2023.
He received a suspended sentence of 15 years and a conditional discharge with five years of supervised probation. Prosecutors have not moved to revoke his probation in that case