An Abiquiú man is facing charges of larceny between $2,500 and $20,000 and residential burglary for allegedly breaking into his neighbor’s garage through the roof and stealing his father’s tools, estimated to be worth $10,000.
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputies charged Jordan Maestas, 27, on July 28, more than a week after getting a confession from him and taking a report about the stolen tools on July 16.
Deputy Adam Archuleta wrote in a criminal complaint that he was sent to Matthew Martinez’s house for a report of stolen tools. Martinez told him his neighbor stole an estimated $10,000 worth of tools and he got some back from his friend, whom his neighbor had sold them to for $100.
Inside the garage, deputies noted shoe impressions in the dust of work boots and a shoe with the Nike symbol. Martinez showed the deputies large tool boxes, filled with tools, and “dust impressions” of where other tools had been, Archuleta wrote.
“Mr. Martinez stated he spoke with the neighbors and they said they witnessed Mr. Maestas climb through the rear of the garage,” he wrote. “Deputies also witnessed a board leaning on the back of the garage.”
Martinez told them Maestas was pulling the stolen tools from the garage through holes in the roof, he wrote.
Martinez then took the deputies to Maestas’s house. After handcuffing him and reading him his Miranda rights, deputies repeatedly asked where the tools were and confronted him with text messages of him selling the tools to another person, Archuleta wrote.
“He stated he did not steal the tools,” he wrote. “I told him they had Mr. Martinez’s dad’s initials on the tools and to be honest. He stated once again that he did not steal them.”
Another deputy asked Maestas’s cousin to get him shoes, so he wouldn’t be barefoot. The cousin returned with a pair of Nike flip-flops, with the symbol on the bottom, and a pair of work boots, he wrote.
“I confronted Mr. Maestas advised him the soles match the same shoe impressions in the garage,” he wrote. “Mr. Maestas stated ‘there is no way those shoes where (sic) in the garage.’ He also stated it was not the same size of shoe.”
When asked again where the tools were, he said some were in the shed. Martinez was able to retrieve some tools from the shed and later, from Maestas’s room, Archuleta wrote.
After retrieving the tools, Martinez estimated it was only a quarter of what was stolen and that he was still missing $9,000 worth.
Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid ordered Maestas to report to pretrial services and set a status conference for late August.