A former Ojo Caliente resident awaiting trial in Santa Fe County Jail for prostitution and drug trafficking charges has claimed responsibility for murdering a Nambé woman whom a fellow inmate was already convicted of killing, according to court documents.
Virginia Neel-Blaker, 22, and her husband James Blaker, 38, have been incarcerated since September 2008 after being snared in a drug sting. They have have been accused of dealing heroin and offering Neel-Blaker’s services as a prostitute, according to court documents. The couple is scheduled to stand trial next month.
Neel-Blaker sent a letter Aug. 6 to defense attorney Dan Marlowe, who represented Arin Jennifer Dilallo during her June trial on first degree murder charges. Dilallo was found guilty June 22 of first degree murder for the May 6, 2008, murder of her mother, Betty Rutigliano.
Neel-Blaker’s letter states she met Dilallo’s boyfriend, Joseph Herrera, while she was soliciting prostitution at Cities of Gold Casino in Pojoaque. She claimed Herrera’s cousin, whom she identified as Buddy, offered her $1,000 to “scare” Dilallo because Dilallo owed Herrera money. Neel-Blaker wrote that she was supposed to wave a knife around Dilallo’s room but instead accidentally killed Rutigliano, whom Neel-Blaker’s letter claims she also had developed a friendship with.
Neel-Blaker wrote she was trying to earn money to get away from her husband, whom she claimed had previously burned her, smashed her head on the ground and caused her to have a miscarriage. In the letter she also states that she recently gave up her parenting privileges over her 2-year-old daughter Virginica, whom she allegedly gave alcohol in the presence of the undercover drug agents last fall.
Neel-Blaker sent Marlowe a second letter Aug. 11 stating she was not involved with Rutigliano’s murder but confessed because Dilallo offered her commissary money and suggested she would get less prison time. Both women have been incarcerated together since June after Neel-Blaker was involved in confrontations with other female inmates in the Rio Arriba County Jail, according to jail staff.
Marlowe entered a motion Aug. 13 asking for a new trial in his client’s case. Dilallo’s Aug. 20 sentencing was therefore postponed indefinitely and the court will hear Marlowe’s argument for a trial based on the new evidence Sept. 15 in state District Court in Santa Fe.
Neither Marlowe, prosecutor Cynthia Hill, nor Blaker’s public defender Paul Branch returned calls by Tuesday night.