Teenager in custody after grandmother beaten

Teen charged with aggravated battery

A 17-year-old is in custody after police say he “severely beat” his grandmother at the family’s Northeast Albuquerque home last Friday.

The teenager, Serjio Griego, is charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and is being held at the juvenile detention center, according to a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office. Court documents have been filed in the case but were not publicly available Tuesday.

Officer Daren DeAguero, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said police were called to the family’s twostory brick house on the 8400 block of Hampton, near Alameda and Barstow NE, Friday evening after receiving calls about an “elderly woman” who had been beaten.

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital in critical condition and violent crimes detectives took over the investigation. A hospital spokesman could not release her condition Tuesday.

Family members have not responded to calls from the Journal.

But neighbors living in the quiet upper middle class street said they were still troubled by what had happened.

Ramon Chavez said the woman and her husband had lived next door to him since the late 1990s and their grandson moved in with them two or three years ago.

“I remember I ran into him outside one day,” he said. “He told me he started La Cueva High School over here and that was a couple of years ago. He was kind of excited about that.”

But, Chavez said, the boy also seemed to have behavioral issues and he had seen him outside making noise and cursing.

Chavez said the older couple had always been friendly to him and they and their children and grandchildren would frequently say hello or chat when they passed in the street.

“I feel for them, for both of them,” he said. “It’s sad, I pray for them every day to get the help that they need.”