Facebook messages appear to discuss slaying
‘I think about that kid everyday cause I looked in his eyes as he left,’ one suspect wrote to another
Facebook messages between the father and son accused in the death of 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia in Nambé provides new evidence concerning the son’s involvement in the boy’s death.
Investigators obtained search warrants for two Facebook accounts registered to Jordan Nuñez, two Facebook accounts registered to his father, Thomas Ferguson, and one Facebook account registered to Tracy Peña, Valencia’s mother and Ferguson’s girlfriend.
All three have been charged with child abuse and tampering with evidence in Valencia’s death in November, including the burial of the boy’s body near the home they shared in Nambé without reporting the death, for which Ferguson also is charged with murder.
Police learned about the boy’s death in late January from an informant who was in incarcerated with Peña at the Santa Fe County jail in connection with another criminal case, according to court documents.
An affidavit filed in state District Court references a message Ferguson wrote to Nuñez on Jan. 7 about why he had left his son a decade earlier, before they reconnected last year. Ferguson talks about how Nuñez does not respect him, then allegedly refers to Valencia.
The message Ferguson wrote on Facebook Messenger, including typos, reads: “Jordan the trouble makers gone you got rid of his [expletive] and now you are actually starting to get like him,, n you have started lying to me son about things that you have been doing and done.”
Nuñez replied on the same day, allegedly referring to a beating that led to Valencia’s death.
“I do respect you I’m just unwanted here and that’s cool but I can see in yours and Tracy’s and [my sister’s] eyes you all don’t want me here ever since that [expletive] happened,” Nuñez wrote. “They look at me like I did it all by myself they did it too.”
The message continues, according to the affidavit, with Nuñez saying he did not mean “to do that” and that it was an accident, allegedly referring to his remorse and nostalgia for Valencia.
“I miss that [expletive] to,” he wrote. “I feel bad for what I did and if I could do things differently I would of but I can’t I have nightmares … I think about that kid everyday cause I looked in his eyes as he left I see that look everyday.”
First Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna said that while Nuñez has already been indicted and his legal team already believed that Nuñez “played a role,” these messages are valuable to their case.
“It’s definitely evidence we will be using,” Serna said.