A Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputy who was charged with multiple felonies after allegedly robbing a Santa Fe pharmacy of prescription pills was released from jail May 29 after his family posted a property bond, according to court documents.
Brian Vigil, 37, of Española, allegedly stole five kinds of prescription painkillers at gunpoint May 11 from Del Norte Pharmacy in Santa Fe, then threatened to kill himself during a two-hour standoff that ended with his arrest.
Vigil was indicted May 22 for armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance and tampering with evidence, documents state. At that time, his bond was reduced from $500,000 cash-only to his present bond.
Vigil’s parents Jose and Lupe posted $62,000 worth of property in Española for Vigil’s release from the Santa Fe County Jail. Vigil cannot enter Santa Fe County except to see his doctor and attorney, and is on electronic monitoring.
Vigil declined to comment.
SUN Staff Report
A Santa Fe man committed suicide May 28 at the Chimayó home of his girlfriend, according to State Police.
Joseph Garcia, 33, hung himself from a belt secured to the spring mechanism of the trailer’s back door, officer Eric Lopez said. When his ex-girlfriend Melanie Martinez found him around 9:30 p.m., he was already deceased, according to a police incident log.
Garcia was upset because he was trying to get back together with Martinez but both of their families didn’t want them to date, Lopez said. Martinez, who was intoxicated when police interviewed her, gave conflicting accounts of how she found Garcia, Lopez said. In one account, Martinez said she had left the house, returned and found Garcia hanging. In another version, she said she came home and found him still at her house, then took a nap and found him deceased when she woke up.
However, State Police Sgt. Chris Valdez said there were no signs of foul play at the scene of the death.
Garcia did not leave a suicide note, Lopez said.
Sgt. Mitchell Maestas said Martinez would probably be re-interviewed at some future time, since she was emotionally distraught and intoxicated at the time of the first interview.
Martinez had previously been arrested for trespassing on Garcia’s parents’ property, Lopez said.
Martinez didn’t return a call and Garcia’s family could not be reached for comment.
SUN Staff Report
Dulce School District voters passed the same tax increase Tuesday that they passed a year ago by a vote of 102 to 74, according to unofficial results released by the Rio Arriba County clerk’s office.
The two mil levy imposes a tax of $2 per $1,000 of assessed taxable property within the District from 2009 through 2014.
The tax money would cover construction of a new high school and teacher housing units, as well as janitorial service and training costs, and the purchase of computers for new online learning programs, Superintendent Ralph Friedly said.
The new tax would not create a net increase in property taxes, Friedly said.
“We passed a mil levy HB33 last year,” Assistant Superintendent Ricardo Sanchez said. “HB33 was just for construction costs but we’d been told there was flexibility there but there wasn’t. We subcontract our maintenance and custodial using that money. So we’re moving two mils from HB33 to this new (tax), to give us more flexibility.”
Most of the taxable property in the District — 99.7 percent — is owned by the oil and gas industry, Friedly said. However the tax burden also falls on District residents who live outside the Jicarilla Apache Nation, which is exempt from property taxes. Those residents’ showed their discontent in the Lumberton precinct where only four of 43 voters supported the tax.
SUN Staff Report
Española Police are awaiting an autopsy report to determine the cause of death of a 34-year-old man whose body was found May 27 outside Blake’s Lotaburger on Riverside Drive.
Delfin Martinez, of Fairview, was found deceased about 4:30 p.m. under a tree behind the Lotaburger by people walking in the area, according to a police report. His body was up against a fence, face down, and was beginning to decompose, the report states.
Española Police Sgt. Christian Lopez said foul play was not suspected in Martinez’s death, but said he could not comment on whether drugs or drug paraphernalia were found near the body. Sgt. Richard Gallegos said neither drugs nor paraphernalia were found when officers searched the scene, but the day after the body was found, Martinez’s girlfriend, Terrie Martinez, called police because she found a syringe on the side of a dumpster in the same parking lot.
Terrie Martinez told police she had never known Delfin Martinez to use drugs, but said she believed a friend may have given him drugs on the day of his death. Police have not released the friend’s name.
Toxicology tests from the state Office of the Medical Investigator will reveal Martinez’s cause of death in approximately six weeks.