BOX CUTTER ATTACKER
3/25, Gallup
It’s not clear from Gallup Police Department Officer Victor Rodriguez’s report on what the motive was for Jimmy Silago allegedly stabbing a man in the neck with a box cutter.
According to the report that briefly notes eyewitness and the victim’s accounts, a female driver was giving Silago a ride when he reached up from the backseat and stabbed the male sitting in the front seat with a red box cutter.
Silago was still in the vehicle when Rodriguez arrived on scene at the 300 block of Black Diamond. He cooperated with the police. However, absent was the victim. He had made his way back to his home at the Black Diamond Trailer Park. The report doesn’t state the severity of the victim’s injuries, other than the driver reportedly said that he was “bleeding bad.”
Officers interviewed the victim, and didn’t note any tension between the two men prior to the stabbing.
Silago, 38, was arrested for aggravated battery.
CHALLENGING A COP
3/25, Fort Wingate
A morning of partying, and behaving aggressively toward a deputy, landed Sonya Dees in jail for assault and battery on a peace officer, in addition to resisting and evading arrest.
McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Salina Brown arrived at 559 Shush Dr., around 1 pm, in response to an intoxicated woman at the residence. As Brown tried to nail down the story of what had transpired, she was met with a talkative Dees, and an uncooperative friend.
Dees, 29, made her way into the residence, and as Brown was taking a statement, she heard a “loud scream.” She called for backup and rushed into the home where she found Dees and her mother standing on either side of a couch. The mother claimed that Dees tried to strangle her.
When she attempted to put the now mouthy Dees in handcuffs, she resisted and was tasered. Dees even pushed her knee into the deputy’s stomach, the report states.
Brown took Dees into custody at the McKinley County Adult Detention Center.
STOLEN CAR RECOVERED
3/24, Gallup
A woman that reported that her white Hyundai Elantra was stolen from her residence on the 800 block of Patton Drive was lucky to get her ride back.
But it wasn’t without a wild chase through Gallup. Thanks to the victim’s Sky Link tracker, cops were able to locate the moving target.
Sky Link notified police that the vehicle was in the vicinity of Wagon Wheel Road, near U.S. Route 491. GPD Officer Roxanne King began following the Hyundai over the Munoz overpass south, and into the parking lot of the Ranchito Motel. As the occupants started to open the doors, they pulled a fast one and sped off from the scene.
The vehicle stopped in the area of 6th Street and Mesa, and the four to five occupants fled the scene. The vehicle continued to coast until it hit a fence at Highway 66 and 6th Street.
Police caught up with two of the occupants, and later determined that the driver was 20 year old Rayann Gerhardt. Apparently one of the occupants was a minor, so Gerhardt was booked for unlawful taking of a vehicle and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
HIGH SPEED DRAMA
3/24, Gallup
An off-duty deputy in an unmarked unit decided to follow a black Cadiallac XTS with California plates that was traveling at a high rate of speed on westbound Interstate 40. He in turn notified deputies working in the area of the speeding car that it was reaching speeds of 105 mph.
McKinley County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Agent Anthony Morales sat in wait until the vehicle flew past him at mile marker 57, near Thoreau.
He pulled the Cadillac over and noticed two men in the car and a single black backpack in the backseat. Morales approached the driver, Michael Garcia, who appeared nervous, noting that “his hands were trembling.”
Garcia, 27, told the agent that the Cadillac was a rental and that he didn’t have the paperwork with him. Before more questioning could get underway, Morales asked the Garcia to drive to the 53 mile marker to where it would be safer to continue the traffic stop. On the way to the mile marker, Metro Dispatch notified Morales that the Cadillac was stolen. So, he called for backup.
Fast forward, none of Garcia’s stories on why he was in possession of the vehicle were legitimate. Inside the vehicle Morales found a 9 mm Taurus model handgun that was loaded with one round in the chamber. He also recovered some weed and a digital scale.
Garcia, whose address is listed in Albuquerque, was placed under arrest.
Before being towed, Morales conducted an inventory search of the vehicle and found a treasure trove of contraband. He discovered a purple Royal Crown bag in the center console, which contained “a glass pipe with a white residue,” consistent with what is used to smoke crystal methamphetamine.
In the trunk he found a black gun box containing two rifles, but neither item checked out as stolen. Bad news for Garcia, a convicted felon.
Garcia was booked into the McKinley County Adult Detention Center for the receiving/transferring a stolen motor vehicle, three-counts of possession of a firearm by a felon, and possession of a controlled substance.
Garcia was in jail as of March 27 on a $10,000 cash/surety bond, and has a preliminary exam set for 8:30 am on April 5 in Magistrate Judge Cynthia Sanders chambers.
