Would-be judicial candidate helps track suspected thief
Lawyer — an ex-cop — lost credit cards, nominating petitions
Fifteen years have passed since Jerry Archuleta last put on a police uniform, but the cop-turned-lawyer says being a law enforcement officer is in his genes.
So when a thief broke into his wife’s car a week ago and stole several of their belongings, including credit cards and a bag containing nominating petitions that Archuleta needs to qualify to run for election as a state District Court judge next year, his lawman instincts immediately kicked in.
The break-in led Archuleta and his family on a trail of clues and investigative work that helped police identify a suspect.
“When you become a cop, it becomes a part of your DNA, whether you have the badge or not,” Archuleta, 47, said Tuesday.
The case started the night of Dec. 19 when Archuleta and his family stopped by a neighbor’s house in the Pueblos del Sol subdivision after his 15-yearold son, Xxier, participated in a Christmas performance at Santa Fe’s Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Just before 11 p.m., a group of kids knocked on the door to report that the windows of a white BMW parked on the street outside had been broken.
“Both windows, the front and the back on the driver’s side, were completely smashed,” Archuleta recalled.
After alerting police, Archuleta’s wife, Tara Block-Archuleta, called to cancel their credit cards. It was already too late.
By then, the thief had charged $53 for gas, which indicated the suspect was driving a large vehicle, and hundreds of dollars had been charged at the WalMart Supercenter on Herrera Drive.
Archuleta said burglars typically dump items that could link them to their crime, prompting him and his wife to go look for their belongings, including a Louis Vuitton purse and wallet, in trash cans at the gas station where the thief bought gas. Next, they drove to Wal-Mart, where they managed to obtain a still shot of the suspect from a video surveillance camera.
He and his wife then posted the picture on Facebook.
“Between Tara and myself, the WalMart picture of him got shared by over 200 people,” Archuleta said.
By Wednesday morning, the couple had received several leads, including a message from a Santa Fe County sheriff ’s investigator who believed he recognized the suspect.
“It’s kind of grainy,” Archuleta said about the picture. “It’s not perfect, but it was enough to start everything.”
Archuleta, who worked for the Santa Fe Police Department from 1991 until 2002, also started to reach out to people in law enforcement, who told him the suspect was believed to be in a white Ford Explorer.
Archuleta and his family took to the streets in search of the suspect, not to apprehend him but to help find him for police and to try to retrieve their belongings.
“I took my gun, and we went packing,” said Archuleta, who has a concealed carry permit.
That same day, the Archuletas discovered that their bank had failed to cancel the credit card that Archuleta uses for his law practice.
But it turned out to be a stroke of luck because it led them to Church’s Chicken on Sawmill Road, where he said the suspect and a female accomplice tried to make a purchase with credit cards that came up as stolen.
“They freaked out, and they stole the chicken and took off,” Archuleta said about the pair.
When Archuleta and his family went to investigate at the restaurant, they discovered that the manager had taken a photo of the suspect’s vehicle, which turned out to be a dark-colored Mercury Mountaineer, not a Ford Explorer.
“I’m calling the detective sergeant over and over again because they hadn’t linked the two crimes together,” Archuleta said.
Archuleta isn’t exactly sure what happened next, but police on Thursday arrested a suspect identified as Brandon Herrera of Albuquerque, who police say was caught driving a stolen Mini Cooper.
A criminal complaint says Herrera tried to flee after the traffic stop and that police found he was carrying a plastic bag in his left sock with a crystal-like substance that tested positive for methamphetamine.
Herrera, 33, appeared in Magistrate Court on Tuesday for a preliminary hearing on a variety of charges stemming from Thursday’s arrest and an earlier case that includes possession of a firearm and driving while intoxicated. He has not yet been charged in connection with the Dec. 19 break-in.
Archuleta said he hopes to recover his nominating petitions, which have the signatures of about 200 voters.
“To me, it’s hard to go ask for signatures because I’m not a good politician, but I did it because I want to be on the ballot for June so we’ve been hustling to get them,” he said of next year’s primary election. “This puts a delay in everything.”
Archuleta and his wife said they were compelled to help solve the crime.
“It felt like you had to take control back after being victimized,” Tara BlockArchuleta said.
“It’s just the way we are,” Jerry Archuleta said. “When something is wrong, we’re not going to idly sit by and wait.”
Jerry Archuleta said his police experience also taught him that only a small percentage of burglaries are solved.
“I knew that if I didn’t take an active role,” he said, “it would be really difficult to connect the dots and solve the crime.”