Chimayó woman guilty of setting husband aflame
Victim arrested for threatening officer
A Chimayó woman was found guilty this week of setting her husband on fire during a violent day at their home in November 2015, and just after her trial, her husband was arrested on suspicion of intimidating a state police officer while testifying in the courtroom.
Layla Coriz, 43, could face up to three years behind bars following her conviction Thursday in Santa Fe on a charge of aggravated battery against a household member, said her lawyer, Roderick Thompson.
She initially faced a charge of attempted murder in the incident, in which she doused her husband, James Coriz, with a flammable liquid and ignited him following an argument. But during a preliminary hearing last year, court records show, state District Court Judge Jennifer Attrep found that there was only enough evidence to charge her with aggravated battery.
While James Coriz, 56, was on the witness stand Tuesday a Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office report says, he made a threatening gesture, running his right hand across his throat, as he stared at New Mexico State Police Officer Jessie Whittaker. State police investigated the couple’s case.
Two days later, the report says, Whittaker asked deputies if he could file a report about the incident. Deputies reviewed surveillance video from the courtroom of Coriz’s testimony Jurors also noticed the gesture. On Thursday, before Judge Attrep announced the jury’s verdict for Layla Coriz, the jury handed two notes to the judge. One note said the jury was concerned about James Coriz’s gesture to the state police officer. The other note said James Coriz had threatened some jurors. Details of the alleged threat were not provided in the sheriff ’s office report.
At least four jurors told deputies they had seen James Coriz threaten the officer, according to the report.
James Coriz admitted to deputies that he had made the gesture out of frustration, the report says, and he offered an apology. That didn’t stop deputies from arresting him.
A criminal complaint filed in the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court charges James Coriz with bribery of a witness, a third-degree felony. He was released from the Santa Fe County jail Friday evening on a $15,000 surety bond, according to online jail records. His wife remains in jail as she awaits her sentencing hearing.
According to court records, the couple’s troubles began Nov. 17, 2015, while James Coriz, a mechanic, was working on a pickup in front of the garage at their home. They argued, Coriz said, and then his wife crashed another vehicle into the truck he was repairing.
Later that day, he thought the trouble was over, he told state police, but when he went to the bedroom that night, his wife came after him, carrying a container of what he thought was gasoline. She poured it on him and then set him on fire, according to court records.
James Coriz’s brother took him to Presbyterian Española Hospital, where he spoke with investigators before medical staff transported him to The University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, records say.
Medical staff members at the UNM Hospital later told officers that Coriz had received burns to his chest, face and hands, and below his waist.
Layla Coriz left the couple’s home after the violence, but state police arrested her two days later.
State police said an officer entered the couple’s home the night of the violence and found magazines on fire inside the bedroom, as well as a burned pillow and a burned bookshelf.
There was blood on the floor of the bathroom, and the toilet seat was broken.
Records say police collected a red plastic lighter, half a book of matches and one burned match from the scene.