Prosecutors are charging an Española man with two counts of attempted murder and seeking to hold him without bail pending trial, after he allegedly shot at the people with whom he was staying.
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Varbel arrested Christopher Chacon, 39, on two counts of first degree murder, Sept. 29, which were amended to attempted first degree murder by prosecutors days later.
Chacon is set for a preliminary and dangerousness hearing on Oct. 17, where District Judge Anastasia Martin will decide what charges, if any, should be bound over, and if Chacon should be held as a danger to the community.
Varbel wrote in a criminal complaint that he was sent to the victim’s house on Sept. 29, when Chacon allegedly shot at him and his girlfriend a second time, after kicking them out of their own house.
Problems started in the morning, about two weeks after Chacon started living with the couple, Varbel wrote, based on his interview with the man. The man and his girlfriend sat down with Chacon to talk to him about paying rent if he was going to stay with them longer.
Chacon accused the man of stealing his wallet four days prior, with $2,000 in it, then cursed at them before storming off to is room. He came back out, pointing a pistol at them, threatening to “murk” (murder) them, then fired a shot to the left of (the man), who was sitting on a couch. (The man) believed this to be bluster, Varbel wrote.
“Chacon continued to make threats demanding that they leave the residence, further claiming that the house was now his and to consider it as payment for (the man) allegedly stealing his money,” he wrote. “(The man) reported that he and (girlfriend) grabbed some of their belongings and the dog, then left the residence in the blue Toyota Corolla. As they were leaving, Chacon was still threatening them and followed them outside.”
The man told Varbel he didn’t initially call police because he didn’t want to get them involved and thought if he gave it some time, Chacon would calm down, he wrote.
They went to a friend’s house to calm their nerves and went back around 3:30 p.m., about five hours later, to try and talk it out. Once they pulled up to the house, the girlfriend approached the front door and Chacon “came outside enraged,” walked up to the passenger seat, made threats, took a large rock and threw it at the car window and became even more enraged when it didn’t break the glass, Varbel wrote.
The girlfriend got back into the driver’s seat and put the car in reverse, and as she did, Chacon pulled out the pistol and fired at them, then fired a second time.
The girlfriend backed into the neighbor’s stucco wall repeatedly before she was able to speed about a quarter mile down the road, where they parked, called 911, and hid in the trees, Varbel wrote.
“(The man) stated that they returned to the residence once they heard the sirens and felt that it was safe to come back,” he wrote.
Chacon told Varbel that he heard gunshots or fireworks when the couple came to the house and someone who “appeared close by out of nowhere.” He denied shooting anyone, he wrote.
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.
Prosecutor Kent Wahlquist wrote in the motion to have Chacon held without bail that he was previously held as a danger in 2019.
“The Defendant has a long history of committing crimes, often while on conditions of release,” he wrote.
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.