Prosecutors dropped a request to hold a 19-year-old Española man without bail after he waived a preliminary hearing in an alleged drive-by shooting case that left one man with two bullet wounds.
Prosecutor Kent Wahlquist initially filed to have Peter Santiago Velarde held without bail pending trial after his initial arrest on April 14, after the April 4 shooting.
Wahlquist withdrew his request for Velarde to be held without bail on April 30, as long as he was placed on house arrested with an approved work schedule, not allowed to drive and had no contact with victims or witnesses.
Velarde was initially charged with one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of shooting from a vehicle causing great bodily harm.
After his case was bound over, the two shooting from a vehicle charges were dropped, although Wahlquist did not write if that was part of the preliminary hearing waiver.
If Velarde filed a waiver, it is not in court records.
District Judge Anastasia Martin ordered Velarde to be released on April 28, following an in-person hearing. He must live at a house in Chimayó, have no contact with the victim, is on house arrest and is on a GPS ankle monitor.
The case broke open on April 10, when Española Police Detective David Jaramillo saw another man he believed to have knowledge of the shooting, in the weight room at Lucero Center. After taking Alex Tolano Lopez in for questioning, the man told Jaramillo that Velarde was the shooter, Jaramillo wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Jaramillo then arrested Velarde at his job at Lowe’s Home Improvement and interrogated him. Velarde allegedly told him the man who was shot twice, Justin Marshall, made a derogatory comment to him about four people who died in a car crash during a confrontation at Marshall’s house. After Marshall told Velarde to shoot him, as Velarde was being driven away, Velarde allegedly said he opened fire, hitting him in the throat and shoulder, Jaramillo wrote.
A virtual arraignment is set for Friday (5/22).