Suspect arrested in drug-related slaying at motel
Dispute in parking lot allegedly led to fatal shooting in SE Albuquerque
Detectives have arrested the man they say shot and killed a man who was selling him drugs at the Sahara Motel earlier this month.
Jorge Correa-Reyes, 43, was arrested Wednesday morning after detectives got a tip he was in Southeast Albuquerque, according to officer Fred Duran, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department. He said they searched from yard to yard until they found him.
Correa-Reyes is charged with murder in the shooting of Geovanis Garcia, 43, on Feb. 1.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court, a witness told detectives Garcia had asked him to go to the motel on Gib-
son near San Pedro SE and sell drugs to Correa-Reyes, whom he knows as “Chino.” The witness was going to give Correa-Reyes a baggie of drugs in exchange for the money, which he would then give to Garcia.
But when he tried to approach the car where Correa-Reyes was waiting, he waved him away dismissively, according to the affidavit.
Correa-Reyes “was known to be prejudicial and only wanted to deal with Cubans,” the witness said. He has the words “Cuba 100%” tattooed on his abdomen, according to the warrant.
So Garcia, who is from Cuba, went to deliver the drugs himself, according to the affidavit.
“(The witness) heard arguing from the area ‘in Cuban’ and then heard gunfire,” the detective wrote in the affidavit. “(The witness) immediately drove away from the scene for fear of being struck by gunfire. (The witness) later received information that Mr. Garcia had been shot and killed.”
When officers arrived at the scene in the back driveway of the motel, they saw Garcia with gunshot wounds to his head and torso and several bullet casings on the ground. He died at the scene.