Mother jailed in shooting, drug incident with son, 17
A Santa Fe County mother was in jail Monday after police accused her of shooting heroin with her 17-yearold son, then leaving him at a hospital emergency room Sunday with injuries sustained when he accidentally shot himself in the hand.
Police arrested Adelita Valencia, 38, on suspicion of child abuse, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence. A police report said she also was the subject of three arrest warrants for failure to appear in court and failure to pay fines. The report also states she also was the subject of a Children, Youth and Families Department “substantiated case” in January 2017 regarding lack of supervision involving her son.
According to police reports, Valencia over the weekend took her son to what he described to investigators as “a party house” in Santa Fe.
Valencia left her son at the house and later walked up to a woman at an Allsup’s convenience store who she claimed to know from “back in the day,” according to police reports. The woman told officers she agreed to give Valencia a ride to the house on Mann Street where Valencia had left the teenager.
According to police reports, the woman said she witnessed Valencia’s son pick up a handgun that had been left on a table and start manipulating it when it went off. She told police she felt bullet fragments ricochet off the floor and hit her leg.
The teenager, meanwhile, sustained severe tissue and bone damage, police reported.
The witness took Valencia and her son to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center at about 10 p.m., the report said, and while they were in the emergency room Valencia disappeared. The driver later reported Valencia had taken her car in which the teenager had left the gun, the report said.
About two hours later, hospital security informed police that Valencia had returned, police reports say, and no gun was found in the car.
Valencia was being held at the Santa Fe County Detention Center on Monday. Police said her son was left in his father’s custody and information will be forwarded to CYFD.