A 32-year-old Española man is facing a charge of felon in possession of a firearm because he was a passenger in a car that had a muzzle-loaded rifle in the back that belonged to another man.
New Mexico State Police Officer Marcus Lopez arrested Armando Martinez on the single felon in possession of a firearm charge on Sept. 29, after he pulled over a truck with no license plate and a Honda CRV with an expired registration in Abiquiú, he wrote in a statement of probable cause.
The driver and owner of the truck, who was also the owner of the rifle and the Honda, told Lopez that the men were following him because he was having issues with the truck and that there was a .50-caliber muzzle loader in the trunk of the Honda, that belonged to him, Lopez wrote.
“Jeremy (Trujillo) also stated the two males were aware the rifle was in the vehicle,” he wrote.
The driver of the Honda was wanted on an arrest warrant and Lopez arrested him. When he ran Martinez’s information, it came back that he was currently on probation. Lopez contacted Martinez’s probation officer, who then drafted his own arrest and hold order for Martinez, Lopez wrote.
The officer had the Honda towed as he applied for a search warrant. In the back, he could see a black rifle case and in the front seat, drug paraphernalia, he wrote.
“Jeremy stated the people who were driving the vehicle are drug users and did not want to get in trouble for any drugs which may be in the vehicle,” he wrote.
Later that day, Lopez got his search warrant approved and seized the muzzle loader.
A status conference is set for Nov. 12.
Convictions
Martinez pleaded no contest in 2014 to armed robbery and, per the plea agreement in that case, he was convicted of attempted burglary in 2011, following an offense five years earlier, in 2006.
More recently, prosecutors sought to have him held without bail for allegedly choking his girlfriend after learning about a past relationship she had been in, then holding her nose and mouth when she tried to call for help. Prosecutors dropped that case shortly after filing to have him held without bail, citing the need for more investigation.
Martinez pleaded guilty in February to misdemeanor attempt to commit possession of a controlled substance, with a sentence of a year of supervised probation.