An Española man, previously charged with child abuse and battery on a household member, for grabbing his girlfriend during an argument in May, has now been charged with receiving stolen property for allegedly owning a stolen pistol.
Española City Police Detective Dwayne Epling filed the charges against Mario Montemayor-Salas, 44, on June 2. He then did not appear for arraignment on July 1 and was arrested on a bench warrant for his failure to appear on July 11, then released on his own recognizance by Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid on July 14.
Española police knew about the allegedly stolen gun in May, when they charged him with felony child abuse and misdemeanor battery against a household member, for allegedly putting his children in a “dangerous” situation by grabbing his girlfriend by the arms and arguing with her.
Officer Andrew O’Hara wrote in the May criminal complaint that Montemayor-Salas told him he had a gun in his house, which was stored in his dresser drawer, but O’Hara never checked to see if the gun was there.
Epling wrote in the criminal summons that the victim came into the Española Police Department four days after his initial arrest, asking how to get a temporary restraining order and she told officers that Montemayor-Salas has a gun at her house and she didn’t want it there.
Epling went with her to her house and she gave him the pistol out of a trash bag of Montemayor-Salas’ clothes that she packed.
“(She) told me that she packed all of Mario Montemayor-Salas’s clothes from his dresser drawers and ‘the gun was in the drawer,’” he wrote.
Epling then had dispatchers run the 9mm Glock 17 and they found it had been reported stolen in Santa Fe, and reported to the Santa Fe Police Department.
Details of that theft were not included in court documents.
The child abuse case is set for later in August, after a continuance Montemayor-Salas filed was denied by Madrid. Montemayor-Salas filed the motion himself, noting the day he was due to appear in court in July, he had a hearing in Santa Fe at the same time. It’s not clear what court that Santa Fe case is in, as it does not appear in online court records.