District Judge Jason Lidyard bound over a Taos man on a charge of first-degree murder and ordered him to be held without bail pending trial, following hearings last week.
Prosecutors initially asked Lidyard to hold Cesar Garcia, 26, without bail on charges of first-degree murder and attempt to commit a felony: unlawful taking of a vehicle, for allegedly fatally stabbing Anthony Velasquez, 32, on Feb. 24 at the Ohkay Owingeh Laundromat.
Lidyard did not bind him over on the attempted taking of a vehicle charge.
When Garcia was arrested, the Taos and Rio Arriba county sheriff’s offices said he appeared to be connected to a double killing in Taos.
Lidyard held an initial detention and preliminary hearing, resulting in Garcia being bound over on March 11 and 12 in Los Alamos.
Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid initially set his bail at $800,000 cash, on Feb. 26 and the same day, Magistrate Judge Alexandra Naranjo ordered him held without bail and his case moved to district court after prosecutors filed to have Garcia held without bail as a danger to the community.
In a form motion to have Garcia held without bail, prosecutor Arwen Gaddis checked the boxes for crime of violence, a violation of a condition of release, flight or resistance to officers, offense was committed in a dangerous manner, specifically, “defendant fatally stabbed the victim with seemly no provocation o (sic) reason,” there is video of the offense, it was observed by multiple witnesses and he has a prior felony conviction.
Garcia is also referred to as Cesar Garcia-Tarango in court documents.
Gaddis also included as evidence, a print-out of a Taos News article that referenced a press release from Taos County Sheriff Steve Miera saying that his agency is investigating a double homicide in El Prado, and Garcia was driving one of the victim’s vehicles.
Ashley Casias, 34, and Anastasia “Stacy” Romo, 39, were found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in a mobile home on the north side of Taos. Taos County Sheriff’s deputies were doing a welfare check and found the women dead.
Garcia has not been charged in relation to the double homicide in Taos.
The stabbing
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Martinez wrote in a criminal complaint that he was sent to the Ohkay Owingeh Travel Center for a stabbing and the suspect, wearing a red hoodie, ran across the highway. He grabbed his medical bag and used gauze to hold pressure on a man’s wound until medics arrived. The man was later identified as Velasquez. Medics declared him dead three minutes after arriving.
When deputies arrested Garcia at a house near Jackrabbit Trail, they found a bloody knife in his pocket, Martinez wrote.
When Martinez looked at surveillance footage, he saw Velasquez was sitting in the backseat of a car when Garcia started tampering with the rear driver-side. Velasquez got out, Garcia ran around to the other side of the car, Velasquez tripped over the curb and fell then he got back up and ran away, Martinez wrote.
Garcia stabbed toward him multiple times. Velasquez tried to get to the laundromat entrance while Garcia fled the area, he wrote.
Skylar Lujan
The day Garcia allegedly killed Velasquez, prosecutors in Taos County filed to have his pre-trial release revoked in a separate case where he allegedly stabbed a man in the leg with a screwdriver. In that case, he was released on his own recognizance, but ordered to be on an ankle monitor. The ankle monitor appeared to be tampered with on Feb. 22 and then died on Feb. 23. The following day, Taos prosecutors moved to revoke the conditions of his release.
No warrant was ever issued, presumably because Garcia was then arrested in the homicide case.
Garcia waived a preliminary hearing in the Taos stabbing case and was bound over on March 11.
Taos County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin McCarty wrote in a statement of probable cause in the Taos stabbing case that they were sent to El Prado for “suspicious activity” between two men, and one appeared to have a knife. When they got there, Garcia allegedly told them he stabbed Skyler Lujan.
When they found Garcia, he was walking toward a mobile home, the same one where Casias and Romo were later found dead on Feb. 24.
It took about 45 minutes before deputies found Lujan, who had puncture wounds to his neck and chest. Lujan told them he thought he was stabbed with a screwdriver. He told deputies that Garcia started getting aggressive while they were together and stabbed him repeatedly.
Garcia was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
In 2021, Garcia was charged with illegally selling a pistol to Lujan for $1,200, which he had legally purchased. He pleaded guilty in a global plea deal in 2022, also to aggravated drunk driving third offense and trying to escape from an officer. In that global plea, he received probation for three years.