Suspect tried to keep victim from leaving hotel
A Gallup man was arrested after he tried to keep a woman in a local motel.
On Jan. 6 around 11:30 am Gallup Police Officer Cindy Romancito was dispatched to the Desert Skies Motel at 1703 W. Hwy. 66 after a man who was later identified as Calvin Johnson was stabbed.
According to witnesses at the scene, the man was bleeding and a woman took off from the room. When Romancito arrived at the scene, she found that one of motel room’s windows had been broken. She met up with Johnson, 35, who was initially hanging outside one of the rooms.
According to Romancito’s report, he was holding a Gatorade and appeared to be confused. He also had blood on his pants.
Romancito asked Johnson if he was OK, and he reportedly said he’d been able to stop the bleeding. She helped him go back into the motel room and sit down on the bed.
When Romancito asked Johnson what happened, he said he was in his motel room when he heard a woman crying. He opened his door and saw a woman reportedly trying to get away from three other guys. One of the men was allegedly yelling.
Johnson called out to the woman and asked her if she wanted to come into his room, which the woman agreed to. Johnson said they were “chilling” in the room when suddenly the woman just stabbed him in his left armpit with a knife.
He said he was able to grab the knife from the woman, and she started hitting the room’s window until she eventually broke it. Then she took off.
The officers eventually tracked down the woman who was involved in the incident, and her story contradicted Johnson’s in a major way.
According to Romancito’s report, the woman said someone was paying for her to stay at the motel. She’d been walking up the stairs when Johnson allegedly called out to her, asking if she wanted to come into his room.
The woman agreed, and when she entered the room, she sat down in a chair by the window. The two of them began chatting, but after a while the woman said she wanted to leave, and Johnson reportedly would not let her exit the room.
She tried asking Johnson if she could take a shower, but he wouldn’t let her do that either. Johnson continued to refuse to let her leave, and that’s when the woman pulled out her knife and stabbed him in the arm.
The woman reportedly said she tried to help him stop the bleeding. She also tried once again to “sweet talk him” into letting her go. At this point Johnson agreed, but then he changed his answer and said no again.
In an effort to escape, the woman hit the window with her arm. It shattered after her third try. She yelled at people who were passing by, asking them for help and to call the police.
While the woman was doing all of this, Johnson was allegedly standing in the room in only his underwear, holding the knife he’d taken from her.
The woman said she’d remained clothed the whole time, and she didn’t know why Johnson had taken his clothes off.
Johnson was taken to a local hospital where his injuries could be assessed. After a medical clearance, he was charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault with the use of a deadly weapon. On Jan. 10, Johnson’s case was moved from municipal court to district court.
Staff Reports
