Murder suspect Orlando Trujillo will remain on house arrest while he awaits trial on a first-degree murder charge.
At a hearing in state District Court in Tierra Amarilla May 26, Judge Sheri Raphaelson decided 32-year-old Trujillo, of Truchas, can remain out of jail on 10 percent of a $250,000 bond set by Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court Judge Alex Naranjo at a bond reduction hearing May 2.
Trujillo was originally released on electronic house monitoring, but Raphaelson ordered he be kept on GPS monitoring, which could pinpoint his location if he left his parents’ home. Raphaelson denied a request from Trujillo’s defense attorney Carlos Scarborough to allow Trujillo to leave his parents’ home to look for work.
Deputy District Attorney Doug Couleur argued Trujillo was dangerous, but said he had no proof the murder defendant was a flight risk.
Raphaelson ruled Trujillo was not a flight risk because he called 911 and waited for Española Police to arrest him outside of Dandy Burger moments after he allegedly shot and killed 40-year-old Jeffrey Garcia near Garcia’s San Pedro home March 21. She said Trujillo could be dangerous after hearing arguments from Couleur, who told her Trujillo took the law into his own hands after asking Garcia if he hit his children.
“I do find dangerousness,” Raphaelson said. “I’m concerned about his impulse control.”
Garcia’s wife, Jackie Chacon-Garcia, would not comment after the hearing.
But his sister, Jacqueline Garcia, said she is concerned about the case against Trujillo. She said her brother, who she described as a gifted artist and stay-at-home dad, was lured outside by Trujillo, who said he needed help with a knocking noise in his truck. Prior to the hearing, Jacqueline Garcia said she was upset to hear a previous preliminary hearing in the case had been canceled because the District Attorney’s Office did not yet have the full investigation report from the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Department. She was also upset that Trujillo’s bond was lowered and at Scarborough’s assertion in a court filing that this was not a murder case.
“Everything was handed to them,” Jacqueline Garcia said, referencing a Department report in which Trujillo allegedly admitted to shooting his friend, then waited for police to pick up him, his vehicle and the alleged murder weapon. “What more do you want? Honestly, what more do you need?”
Trujillo’s preliminary hearing was set for April 25, but Assistant District Attorney Dorie Biagianti-Smith dismissed the charges because she did not have the full report. She would not comment specifically on what she was missing, but said she did not have enough information to go to court. She pointed out Scarborough is entitled to all of the state’s evidence against Trujillo, which she could not provide because the report was not complete.
“Without it, it’s sort of pointless to go forward,” she said.
Couleur said prosecutors were missing “basic” information prior to the April hearing, but also declined to go into detail about what was missing. He also downplayed the missing information, saying it was not strange for a homicide investigation. He said the case was not as simple as getting the suspect, weapon and a confession. He cited witness statements as an example.
“In an ideal world, would we have it the next day? Sure,” he said. “I’m not going to place blame on anybody. It’s not going to happen.”
Sheriff Tommy Rodella has not returned requests for comment since mid-April. Lt. Adam Archuleta, who investigated the case, also did not return calls for this story.
Biagianti-Smith first filed a murder charge in state District Court, but dismissed it the same day Trujillo was to have a preliminary hearing. The case remained within the Magistrate Court. Scarborough asked Naranjo to reduce Trujillo’s bond from $1 million cash-only, which Naranjo granted May 2.
Couleur said he told Naranjo during the hearing he had no evidence Trujillo was a flight risk, but said he doubted Trujillo would be able to post the bond. Couleur said he asked for Trujillo to be monitored continuously.
Naranjo said later he did not feel prosecutors opposed reducing Trujillo’s bond and he got the impression the case would go before a grand jury.
“The charges were very serious,” Naranjo said.
Naranjo said he ordered Trujillo to not leave his parents’ house and to have no contact with the victim’s family.
Couleur refiled the murder charge in District Court.
Scarborough argued in his motion for the bond reduction the facts would show this was not a murder case. He said his client asked for help with alleged abuse his children faced at the hands of another man, but could not get help through the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Scarborough refused to explain these statements further.
Jacqueline Garcia said she thought Trujillo committed premeditated, or first-degree murder, punishable by a sentence of life in prison, according to state law. She accused Trujillo of driving to her brother’s house with a plan to lure him outside, then kill him.
“He had time to think about what he was going to do,” she said.
She said her brother did not have a feud with Trujillo and he would not have gone outside to help Trujillo with his vehicle if he had. She said Jackie Chacon-Garcia said her husband was outside for a few minutes before she heard the gunshots and heard her husband saying he had been shot.
Neighbors reported Trujillo flashed a peace sign at them as he drove away. Deputies claim Trujillo asked Jeffrey Garcia if he hit his children and Jeffrey Garcia said he had, at which point Trujillo said he shot him.
An April 4 autopsy report for Jeffrey Garcia states he died of multiple gunshot wounds to his torso and the manner of death was a homicide. The report lists four gunshot wounds: to his right shoulder; to the right side of his chest, which hit his lung; to the left side of his chest; and to to his left shoulder. The report states this is not necessarily the order in which the gunshots were fired.
Trujillo is scheduled to appear at a pre-trial conference July 18 in state District Court Judge Stephen Pfeffer’s court, an online court records database states.