Double-murder suspect jailed until hearing
James Knight is charged with killing Zakaria Fry and Carrel Ray
A double-murder suspect will remain behind bars at least until a detention hearing in state District Court.
Metropolitan Court Judge Michelle Castillo Dowler said that 32-year-old James Knight, also known as Charles Spiess, will be held until a district judge decides whether Knight will be detained until trial in the deaths of Zakaria Fry, 28, and Carrel Ray, 70.
The date for the detention hearing, requested by the District Attorney’s Office, has yet to be set.
Ray, a prominent Albuquerque lawyer, and Fry, to whom Ray rented a room, were reported missing by relatives on Jan. 26. Their bodies were discovered a month later, stuffed into containers a couple of miles apart in Stanley.
Police identified Knight after they say he used Ray’s car and credit card to go on a shopping spree after the two disappeared.
Heather Patten, Fry’s sister, had a message for Knight: “I hope you rot in hell.”
“She didn’t deserve it; no one does,” Patten said outside the courtroom.
She called it “a blessing” to see Knight in a jail-issued orange jumpsuit.
“I waited weeks for this,” she said. “I will be at every court hearing until I get justice for her.”
Patten said she didn’t know if Knight and Fry had known each other a long time or the nature of their relationship.
“Those are a lot of questions that I have that are unanswered,” she said. “I’m sure it will all come out in time.”
She said will miss Fry’s laugh along with movie nights and Sunday dinners together.
“It’s been very hard,” Patten said. “I knew deep in my heart when I went to where her body was dumped — I had a moment of release, that she was there with me.”
While Knight, who legally changed his name from Charles Spiess in May 2010, doesn’t have a lengthy criminal record in New Mexico, his most recent charges point to disputes with family.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Knight was charged with criminal damage to property under $1,000 in November and deprivation of property after slashing the tires on two of his grandfather’s cars in December.
Police say Knight’s mother, Marie Chavez, called police to report the incident in late November after he was kicked out of his sister’s home.
Chavez told police that Knight was yelling and demanded she bring his clothes outside.
Police say that when Chavez brought the clothes outside, Knight began ripping through them and throwing hangers at the two cars.
“When Marie told him not to damage the vehicles, James glared at her, pulled out a cutting tool and began slashing the tires of both of the vehicles,” an officer wrote. Knight fled on foot. Almost a month later, Knight’s sister, Sarah Spiess, was charged with battery against a household member after police say she threw a candle at him because he was “rude” to her friends.
At the scene, Knight told police he believed his sister’s friends “were drug users” and “plotting against him.”