Suspect in rape case surrenders
Pair accused of plying girl, 15, with alcohol after meeting on Plaza
A second man accused of raping a 15-yearold girl turned himself in to Santa Fe police Friday evening, ending a search Deputy Chief Paul Joye said.
Derrick Shawn Chavez, 25, of Santa Fe faces charges of criminal sexual penetration, criminal sexual contact of a minor, kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to arrest warrant affidavits filed in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
On Thursday, police arrested Maury Montel Elliott, 23, who had moved to Santa Fe from Philadelphia several months ago, on the same charges. His mother, in a phone interview Friday, said she had spoken with her son in a call from the jail, and he denied committing the crimes.
The counts stem from an allegation that Elliott and Chavez had plied a teen with alcohol Oct. 4 and took her to an apartment at the Warren Inn on Cerrillos Road, where she was
raped after falling unconscious.
Earlier Friday, Joye said detectives had spoken with Chavez by phone in the morning and had arranged a time for him to turn himself in, but Chavez didn’t show up. He finally turned himself in at police headquarters shortly before 6 p.m., Joye said.
Efforts to reach Chavez’s family Friday were not successful. According to Joye, Chavez was born and raised in Santa Fe and had no known employment.
Reached by phone Friday in Philadelphia, Elliott’s mother, Lavene Elliott, said her son had called her from the Santa Fe County jail following his arrest. He denied raping the girl but indicated he knew her, she said.
“He just said that he didn’t know why he was in there,” Lavene Elliott said, referring to the jail. “And police said the girl was underage. And he said he didn’t know she was underage, and he said he wouldn’t mess with any underage girl.”
She later said her son had been shocked when several police officers showed up at his Santa Fe apartment Thursday to question him.
“When the police asked him, he wouldn’t answer the questions in a way that was sufficient. They arrested him then,” his mother said. “He said whatever they were accusing him of, he didn’t do it.”
The girl told investigators she and a friend were first approached by the two men Sept. 27 on the Plaza, and that Maury Montel Elliott offered them a drink from a bottle of liquor in a paper bag. They refused, the girl said, but the four exchanged Instagram names.
Later, the girl told police, she received a text message from Chavez, suggesting she sneak out of her house and meet him and Elliott. She initially refused, she said, according to the arrest warrant affidavits, but was encouraged by her friend to meet the men.
She met them at an elementary school Oct. 4 and drove with them to a downtown park, where she drank from a liquor bottle Elliott had given her, according to the affidavits. She said Elliott then blew marijuana smoke into her mouth and she became dizzy and vomited.
Instead of taking her home, the girl said, the two men drove her to the Warren Inn and took her upstairs into an apartment, where she vomited again.
The girl told investigators she drifted in and out of consciousness during the incident but remembered Elliott groping her, taking off her clothes and raping her, the affidavits said.
Court records showed Elliott had an initial appearance Friday before a Magistrate Court judge, who allowed his release on a $2,500 unsecured appearance bond with GPS monitoring. Other conditions of Elliott’s release prohibit him from accessing social media and having contact with the the teen girl or any other person under 18.
As of Friday afternoon, Elliott was still in jail, records showed.
Lavene Elliott described her son as “a good person” and said he moved to Santa Fe in June to be with a woman who was his girlfriend at the time. After being fired from a construction job, Lavene Elliott said, her son got a job with UPS but hurt his back and was off work for a while.
UPS did not return calls to confirm his employment there. Her son and his girlfriend had recently broken up, Lavene Elliott said, and he was lonely for friends. He met Chavez — whom she referred to as a “so-called friend” — a month or two ago.