Police find motel room littered with diapers, alcohol bottles

A Gallup couple is facing child abuse charges after officers found them in a motel room with marijuana and a baby.

On May 8, around 8:45 pm, Gallup Police Officer Charlie Watkins was dispatched to the Motel 6 at 3306 W. Hwy. 66 after someone reported they could hear a child crying and two people arguing in one of the motel rooms.

Watkins reportedly found the door cracked open when he arrived at the scene. When he walked into the room he was instantly hit with the smell of alcohol. He also noticed three people in the room, two adults and a child. The adults were later identified as Austin Gregg and Sophina...

PHOENIX — A man from Chine, Arizona was sentenced to life in prison for multiple counts of child sex abuse.

Kendall Anagal, 41, was sentenced lby United States District Judge Diane J. Humetewa to life in prison for multiple counts of child sexual abuse during the week of May 6.

On Feb. 9, a federal jury found Anagal guilty of three counts of Aggravated Sexual Abuse and one count of Abusive Sexual Contact of a Child. Anagal repeatedly and violently sexually abused a child who, at the time of the abuse, was between 9 and 10 years old. The victim reported these offenses when she was 17 years old; she did not disclose them earlier because she reportedly feared for her life.

The Federal...

A federal judge handed down a 30-year prison sentence on May 17 to a Naschitti man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to kidnap a victim who was lured to a location in Gallup under the false pretense of meeting up with a woman. The victim was then beaten and stabbed to death.

According to court records, on Sept. 16, 2021, Elias Viola, 32, and his then-girlfriend, Shannon Etsitty, devised a plan to lure the victim to a location under the guise of a meetup with Etsitty. Viola sent a text message from Etsitty’s phone propositioning the victim, who agreed to meet.

Etsitty reportedly picked the victim up from his residence and drove him to a location where Viola and another man attacked the...

STEALING BOOZE

Gallup, May 8

A woman named Danissa Smith, 36, is facing robbery charges after she allegedly stole a backpack that had booze in it.

On May 8 around 5:45 pm, Gallup Police Officer Gilbert Gonzales was dispatched to the Walgreens at 1870 E. Hwy. 66 after an apparent fight broke out. When he arrived at the scene, he met with a victim who said she’d been behind the store when a woman, who was later identified as Smith, approached her and then hit her in the face before she stole her Dallas Cowboys backpack.

The victim said the woman’s name was “Vanessa or something like that” and that she had long hair that was pulled up in a bun.

An officer found Smith in the...