3 accused in violent crimes to stay jailed

Judges, all in separate cases, decide against giving bond

Three men charged with violent crimes in the Santa Fe area will remain jailed as their cases move forward, state District Court judges ruled Wednesday.

Prosecutors argued the men are too dangerous to be allowed out on bond.

The defendants ordered held without bail are:

Randy Branch, 29, accused of firing shots at a Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputy during a pursuit on U.S. 84/285 last week.

James Jochem, 43, accused of beating a man seen with his ex-wife at a Blake’s Lottaburger on Airport Road on May 5.

Scott Shillito, 61, who was arrested at a Santa Fe extended-stay motel May 9 for allegedly kidnapping and severely beating his wife.

Branch was wanted after multiple road encounters May 8, according to a criminal complaint.

He allegedly pointed a gun at another driver who was attempting to pass him on U.S. 84/285, then fired two rounds at a deputy who spotted his car and tried to stop him, and then continued to evade police officers in a chase.

Branch is accused of driving up to 120 mph, “swerving in and out of lanes” and failing to stop at multiple red lights in the Pojoaque area.

He was taken into custody by the Bernalillo County Sheriff ’s Office, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman Juan Ríos. Branch is charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer, possession of a firearm and other felonies related to the incident.

Shillito was arrested after a woman called police to say her friend at the Tranquilla Inn on Cerrillos Road, near Rodeo Road, needed help.

A witness at the Tranquilla Inn told police that Shillito’s wife, who said her husband had burned her because she refused to have sex with him, would sometimes disappear for weeks, according to a criminal complaint.

Police found Shillito’s wife with multiple injuries, including bruises, a potentially infected burn, “damage from where the hair was pulled from her” scalp and what seemed to be a recently broken shoulder, the criminal complaint says.

Shillito is charged with aggravated battery and kidnapping with the intent to commit a sexual offense.

According to the motion filed by district attorneys to keep Shillito in jail, he has also faced dozens of charges of assault, kidnapping and causing serious bodily injury over the past two decades in Arizona and Colorado.

Jochem’s public defense attorney, Joshua Humphreys, argued in court that Jochem was provoked into fighting by the man seen with Jochem’s wife at the Lottaburger.

Even if that’s true, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said, an argument wouldn’t justify Jochem threatening the man with a shotgun and hitting him with the gun in front of the victim’s daughter, which Jochem is accused of doing.

Noting a number of past charges against Jochem in New Mexico and Colorado, the judge decided he should be held in jail.

As he was leaving the courtroom, in red jail clothes and handcuffs, Jochem tried to make his case to Marlowe Sommer.

“I can’t speak, your honor?” he said, while he was being ushered out. “This is [expletive] man. I didn’t even have a gun.”