Absconder at center of FBI standoff
Convicted armed robber was on probation for 3rd time in 5 years
Zero tolerance. Next time, it’s back to prison. That was the warning from a state district court judge last August after convicted armed robber Abran Apodaca violated his probation for the third time in five years — this time for aggravated DWI.
Pro Tem Judge Angela Jewell, a retired judge who hears probation violation cases in Bernalillo County, gave Apodaca another chance by reinstating his probation — but warned that if he violated again, he would be sent to prison for two years.
Nine months later, in June of this year, a warrant was issued for Apodaca’s arrest for absconding from supervision and failing to appear on the DWI charge.
On Aug. 4, an FBI-led task force took Apodaca off the streets for what could be a long time.
Yet the stakes were deadly. Before Apodaca’s arrest, an FBI agent found himself looking at the barrel of a rifle wielded by Apodaca and a gun battle ensued in Southwest Albuquerque.
Before the shootout, an FBI-led task force had Apodaca’s house in Albuquerque under surveillance.
Days earlier, Apodaca had “fired shots from his vehicle at an adult male and an 8-year-old child at an Albuquerque city park,” according to a court filing Aug. 15 by a state probation officer. And there was the pending state warrant for his arrest.
On Aug. 4, agents watched Apodaca arrive at his home along with two females. Law enforcement agents later saw the three get back into Apodaca’s car and they closed in to arrest him with their emergency lights flashing, according to a federal arrest affidavit and state records.
That was when Apodaca accelerated into one agent’s vehicle, “raised and aimed a rifle at the agent (inside), and fired the rifle out of the driver’s side window of his gray Honda,” according to the affidavit filed Aug. 7.
Agents returned fire and Apodaca drove off, heading to 61st Street SW where his car came to a stop.
Apodaca, who suffered a gunshot wound, was taken into custody. No agents were harmed in the gunfire. Apodaca was hospitalized but was able to appear in U.S. Magistrate Court earlier this month.
And the two women in the car with him that day? Both were under state Corrections Department supervision at the time, one on probation, the other on parole.
Back in August 2006, when Apodaca was 26, his weapon of choice was a knife, which he was accused of holding to the throat of a man.
In the altercation earlier this month, Apodaca is alleged to have wielded an AR-15 assault rifle, which was found next to his Honda, court records state.
His arrest in 2006 came after he and an accomplice robbed four men at knifepoint in a parking lot in Southwest Albuquerque, court records alleged.
The suspects stole money from the men and attempted to steal their car before walking away, news reports stated at the time.
Apodaca was indicted on state charges that included second-degree kidnapping, armed robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, aggravated battery and assault with intent to commit a violent felony.
He pleaded guilty in June 2007 to two counts of armed robbery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy.
But court records show that time and again over the next decade, Apodaca failed to abide by court-ordered release and supervision conditions.
Before he was set to be sentenced Aug. 23, 2007, he had already failed to report to pretrial services for appointments and didn’t continue substance abuse treatment as ordered, court records show. He was on a $100,000 cash bond pending release and was arrested in late August 2007.
Then-District Judge Neil Candelaria sentenced Apodaca to serve four years in prison on the robbery charges, with five years of supervised probation to follow.
Corrections officials say Apodaca was released from prison in December 2010, but by July 2011 had violated his probation by failing to report to his probation/parole officer and failing to complete community service. He also stopped attending anger management classes.
“Parolee Apodaca’s adjustment to supervision can best be described as guarded,” probation/parole officer Carlos Torres wrote in a report. Torres recommended that Apodaca, if found guilty of violating any of the conditions, be returned to prison to “final out his time.”
Court records show his probation was revoked by Jewell, who sentenced him to two years in prison to be followed by three years of probation.
By July 2013, Jewell was dealing with a new probation violation by Apodaca, and again sent him back to prison — this time for 730 days of incarceration. Upon release, he was to serve a new term of 60 months of supervised probation.
His then-probation officer Aaron Miera wrote in a 2013 report that Apodaca “failed to take probation seriously.” He had difficulty adjusting to life out of prison and “expected everything to be handed to him,” the report stated.
After serving another stint in prison, Apodaca initially had no new probation violations in 2015 as he was in the department’s Intensive Supervision program “and seemed to adjust well to his condition of release,” stated Isaac Rincon, Apodaca’s then-probation officer, in a court filing.
But by July 30, 2016, Apodaca had returned to standard supervision and was in trouble again. This time, he was charged with aggravated DWI by a Rio Rancho police officer, according to a probation violation report filed in August 2016.
Judge Jewell opted to reinstate his Intensive Supervision probation and required full-time work or school. The judge’s order noted, “Zero Tolerance. Next violation, state will ask for at least 2 years DOC (Department of Corrections).”
With his arm in a sling, Apodaca, 37, appeared in U.S. Magistrate Court on Aug.9, charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He didn’t object to being detained in federal custody pending trial.
His federal public defender declined to comment on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office has filed another motion — the fourth since 2006 — to revoke Apodaca’s state probation based on the FBI shooting. One of the two passengers in his car that day, Jayrina Pena, is on parole for drug trafficking and was being held in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday. It wasn’t clear whether the other passenger, identified as Diana Parra, was in custody.