A Chimayó man was allegedly discovered sucking heroin out of a syringe cap July 4 in the Española Jail five days before he was set to plead guilty in a fatal shooting case.
Julio Gurule, 20, has agreed to a plea deal in the shooting death of Moses Martinez, 25, according to the District Attorney’s office. The plea agreement was reached after Gurule had been charged June 30 in state District Court in Tierra Amarilla with involuntary manslaughter for the Feb. 22, 2008, incident. Gurule allegedly shot Martinez with a .30-.30 lever action rifle in another person’s Chimayó home while the two men and four other friends were getting ready to go hunting. Witnesses and Gurule claim the shooting was accidental.
Gurule was in jail July 4 for a separate incident. Gurule was supposed to be serving two days in jail after he failed to appear on a March 14 shoplifting charge out of Española Municipal Court. According to court documents, Gurule attempted to steal eight DVDs and several packages of batteries valued at $86 from Wal-Mart.
Gurule was in possession of drug paraphernalia when Española Jail officers busted into the jail bathroom July 4 and found him with a syringe cap in his mouth and a syringe taped to his leg, according to a police report. Gurule told police he was sucking the heroin out of the syringe cap, the report states.
Española Police Sgt. Christian Lopez said the case has been forwarded to the District Attorney’s office. Gurule was released from jail Sunday, according to jail staff.
Whether this latest incident will affect the plea hearing is not clear. Assistant District Attorney Tim Hasson said Monday that he was unaware of Gurule’s latest arrest. Stephen Farber, Gurule’s attorney in the shooting case, did not return a call for comment.
Gurule was charged last week through a rarely-used process, Hasson said Monday. Hasson filed a “criminal information” charging Gurule with involuntary manslaughter; this entitles a defendant to a public probable cause hearing, whereas a grand jury proceeding is secret. That form of charging was agreed upon through talks with Farber, Hasson said. Then, Gurule waived his right to a probable cause hearing and agreed to a plea deal, Hasson said.
Hasson would not say what charge Gurule would plead guilty to at a hearing scheduled for Thursday (7/9) in state District Court in Tierra Amarilla. However, there is no lesser charge that encompasses the facts of involuntary manslaughter, a fourth-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 18 months imprisonment.
Gurule was initially charged in Rio Arriba County Magistrate court with involuntary manslaughter shortly after the shooting. That charge was dismissed last year, as frequently happens before a case is presented to a grand jury. Then-Chief deputy district Attorney A.J. Salazar had said he would present the case at a preliminary hearing, a mini-trial sometimes used as an alternative to the grand jury process.
Last month, Farber said a grand jury hearing was scuttled earlier this year after he informed prosecutors that he planned to present evidence to the grand jury that would prove Gurule’s innocence.
All the while, Gurule had been out of custody until last weekend. He spent only one night in jail after the shooting before his family bonded him out after then-magistrate court judge Tommy Rodella lowered his bond to 10 percent of $50,000 to the court from $20,000 cash-only.
No one will be charged in connection with the drugs found at the crime scene — 24 grams of cocaine and 22 grams of heroin, Hasson said.
To do so would require police prove a “constructive possession” charge, because the drugs were near the subjects but not on their person or in their direct possession, he said.
“When police discover drugs in a room where no one was, in a house with six people present, there’s no way the state could ever prove beyond a reasonable doubt whose drugs those were,” Hasson said.