Double murder suspect released by accident
Detectives quickly arrest inmate who was let go after paperwork goof
A Bernalillo County spokeswoman says a double murder suspect was mistakenly released from jail Monday because documents showing he was to be held without bond were not included in his file.
Angel Celis, 22, was released from the Metropolitan Detention Center around 3 a.m. Monday and taken back into custody in Southeast Albuquerque around 7:30 p.m., according to a county spokeswoman and jail records.
He is accused of shooting and killing two women just hours apart in January 2016. And court documents show a judge in March 2016 opted to hold him without bond in that case.
Celis, while awaiting trial in the murder case, was also serving a sentence for a probation violation in a domestic violence case, court records show. Bernalillo County spokeswoman Tia Bland said he completed that sentence Monday.
She said Celis had been a state Department of Corrections inmate when he was moved to MDC. A paper file followed him from the DOC facility to MDC, and Bland said documents indicating Celis was being held without bond in an unrelated case were not included in that file.
“Not having that, the staff (at) the MDC didn’t see a reason to hold the inmate,” Bland said. “We don’t exactly know where the hiccup occurred with the paper trail.”
Mahesh Sita, spokesman for the state DOC, said “any allegation that this inmate was released because of lack of paperwork from DOC is absolutely false.” He said the DOC hasn’t had jurisdiction of Celis since Dec. 5, 2016.
Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Simon Drobik said the department was notified of Celis’ release Monday afternoon, and undercover detectives arrested him 3½ hours later — a turnaround time that he said was “unheard-of in fugitive apprehension.”
Drobik said Celis was found at a friend or relative’s home in Southeast Albuquerque. Jail records show he was arrested at an address on East Central near Utah.
“They just go back to where they know,” Drobik said.
Bland said MDC already was working to get records staff access to databases that will let them perform background checks on inmates before they’re released.
“When you’re dealing with pieces of paper and hard-copy files, I mean it’s understandable sometimes that pieces of paper aren’t always where they’re supposed to be,” she said.
The new access to the database would act as “another layer of making sure that t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted before folks are released.”
Competency issues been raised in Celis’ pending murder case, and his defense attorney Steve Torres said evaluation has been completed and attorneys are awaiting a report.