After prosecutors dropped charges of attempted murder in favor of trafficking and possession of a firearm by a felon, Christopher Chacon is wanted on a bench warrant for failing to appear at a hearing to see if a judge would order him to be held without bail.
He’s accused of kicking a couple out of their home in September, then shooting at one of them.
District Judge Anastasia Martin issued the nationwide bench warrant on Nov. 17, citing the fact that Chacon, 39, didn’t appear for a hearing on Nov. 14. She had set a motion hearing to see if the conditions of his release should be revoked.
However, her motion for the revocation of his release does not state why it was filed or what Chacon is accused of doing.
No court documents outline why the judge proposed revoking or changing the conditions of Chacon’s release.
“The Defendant is alleged to have violated a condition of release as follows:” Martin wrote in the motion. “Failure to comply with conditions of release.”
What condition Chacon allegedly did not follow is missing from her motion and no report from probation officers appears in either the detention or district court cases, outlining a probation violation.
No court documents, aside from the judge’s motion, alleged that he violated the conditions of his release.
The warrant is the second one Martin has issued for Chacon’s arrest. She issued a separate nationwide bench warrant on Nov. 8, also alleging that he had failed to comply with the conditions of his release. The Nov. 8 warrant also does not have any particulars of what he is accused of.
Martin previously ordered Chacon released on his personal recognizance on Nov. 4, including conditions that he not possess any guns, not return to the scene of the shooting, not consume alcohol, not have any drugs, not leave the state without permission and have no contact with the victims.
He was supposed to be on house arrest at his mother’s house and she was supposed to pick him up from the bus stop, according to the release order.
Additionally, he was supposed to be hooked up to electronic monitoring before he was to be released, according to an additional Nov. 4 order for release.
Prosecutors previously sought to have Chacon held without bail. Martin wrote that he is dangerous, but prosecutors had not met their burden to show that “no reasonable conditions of release will protect the safety of any other person or the community.”
Instead, she ordered him to be on house arrest.
Charges Dropped
Prosecutor Kent Wahlquist agreed to drop two charges of attempted murder and one count of shooting at a vehicle against Chacon in exchange for him waiving a preliminary hearing on charges of felon in possession of a firearm and trafficking fentanyl, in a waiver filed Oct. 15.
Wahlquist also tried to get Chacon held without bail, citing allegations that he shot at the two people who had been letting him stay at their house, after kicking them out, and that he has a “long history of committing crimes, often while on conditions of release.”
Wahlquist summed up a series of cases against Chacon, including shoplifting cases, threatening to shoot people, drugs, punching a woman in the face because she said she doesn’t like hanging out with him because he’s so mean and aggressive, and attacking jail guards with other inmates.
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Varbel arrested Chacon on two counts of first degree murder, Sept. 29, which were amended to attempted first degree murder by prosecutors days later. Prosecutors then sought to have him held without bail as a danger to the community, before dropping the attempted murder charges in exchange for Chacon waiving a preliminary hearing.
Varbel wrote in a criminal complaint that the victim called police only after Chacon allegedly shot at him, after Chacon kicked him and his girlfriend out of their own home earlier in the day at gunpoint.
When deputies searched the car, they found two bullet holes, one in the hood, and another in the grill and retrieved one bullet. Inside the house, other officers had already found a shell casing in the living room, he wrote.