Mother of slain boy booked, released 22 times for minor crimes, probation violations
SANTA FE — Tracy Pena gave up her son and daughter twice to relatives, at one point saying she’d been causing “distruction” in the children’s lives.
But the boy and girl were back with Pena, 35, last year when true destruction arrived. Her son, Jeremiah Valencia, was killed just short of his 14th birthday. Investigators say Pena’s boyfriend, Thomas Ferguson, 42, had tortured the boy and kept him in a dog kennel before beating him to death on Nov. 26 — the same day Pena was released from one of her more-or-less regular jail stays.
And her daughter, born less than a year after Jeremiah, told detectives she witnessed the fatal beating.
Efforts to reach relatives to talk about Pena’s history were unsuccessful. But she’s been a frequent flier at the Santa Fe County jail with probation and parole.
And she’s a prime example of New Mexico’s many “revolving-door” inmates who do not have violent records, but appear to have serious drug problems that lead to arrest after arrest, and then quick release after release.
Judges had ordered Pena to interact with drug
rehabilitation services, but based on court records, she probably didn’t follow through. Nothing in the online records show she’s ever been charged with a violent crime.
In such cases, it’s often the children who suffer the most. That was certainly the case here.
Jail bookings
Pena, also known as Tracy or Tracy Ann Valencia, Tracy Tapia and, at least on Facebook, as Tracy Olivas, has been booked into the Santa Fe County jail 22 times since 2009, mostly on shoplifting counts, probation violations, “failure to appear” for not showing up in court and “failure to comply” for not following court orders. She had one earlier booking, in 2003 at age 20, under a hold until she was sober.
She’s also faced a heroin possession count and, in a separate case, a charge of tampering with evidence for popping a bag of cocaine into her mouth after she was confronted about shoplifting at a Wal-Mart store. Pena has spent a total of about 120 days in jail since 2009, according to the jail records.
Her longest stay behind bars lasted 36 days in a case that started when she was indicted in state District Court for stealing more than $500 worth of Levi’s jeans from the now-defunct Santa Fe Sears store, and ended up including a probation violation and a dirty drug test.
Court records also show that in October 2008, Pena’s parents petitioned for guardianship of her two children. The following February, Pena signed off on the arrangement.
She wrote, “I do not want to cause any more distruction (sic) in the childrens life’s (sic).”
In 2011, when her arrest rate picked up — she was booked into the jail five times that year — Pena again OK’d granting guardianship to relatives, first to an aunt and uncle. “Parents don’t have (a) steady place to live,” a court motion says.
Later, Pena’s parents again were named temporary kinship guardians. An amended order in June 2012 granted them guardianship for 12 months.
State Children, Youth and Families Department spokesman Henry Varela has said the department had a protective service interaction with Jeremiah and his now 13-year-old sister in 2011, and placed them with family members.
Andrew Valencia, who court records indicate is Jeremiah’s father, also has a long criminal record. He has been in the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility since July after violating probation stemming from 2014 robbery convictions. Divorce proceedings between Pena and Valencia resulted in final decrees in both 2007 and 2009.
Failed drug test
In the case involving the jeans from Sears, Pena pleaded guilty to attempted shoplifting in May 2015, and District Court Judge T. Glenn Ellington gave her a 364-day suspended sentence and 364 days probation. After an initial probation violation — “She has not adjusted to probation supervision at all,” a probation officer wrote — and 13 days in jail, Ellington let her out under electronic monitoring and a requirement for twice-a-week drug tests via urine analysis.
When Pena quickly failed one of the drug tests, Ellington sentenced her to the 36 days in jail that she served in March and April 2016.
While these court proceedings were ongoing, Pena also was charged — in Magistrate Count on June 15, 2015 — with felony possession of heroin. She quickly entered a no contest plea to a charge of attempt to possess heroin. It appears she was ordered to perform community service, and online documents say she was “required to complete a drug and alcohol screening and any recommended treatment recommended by Ayudantes or The Life Link.” The Life Link is a nonprofit that provides services such as behavioral health, substance abuse counseling and housing programs. Ayudantes was a nowclosed substance abuse treatment center.
A few months later, in November 2015, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest for failure to appear at a compliance hearing. She wasn’t subsequently arrested until Feb. 24, 2016. She was released about a week later and ordered to serve 34 hours community service at a Santa Fe senior center in lieu of fines and fees. But yet another bench warrant was issued on Aug, 3, 2016. The documents say she “surrendered” herself to the court nine days later.
Online records say the case was closed the following month because “jurisdiction” lapsed, possibly a reference to the fact that felony cases are typically sent on to the higher-level District Court. But the heroin charge doesn’t show up again.
Pending case
Pena’s next case started in Dec. 13, 2016, and is still pending.
According to a criminal complaint, Pena was taken into custody at a Santa Fe Walmart when she had stashed several items in her purse. When confronted, she said she had intended to pay for items and did so. She was escorted to a store security office, where she put a small baggy in her mouth and said, “It was only cocaine,” the complaint states.
There were several syringes in her purse, as well as “a silver spoon containing brown residue consistent with the use of heroin.” Pena was charged with shoplifting, possession of cocaine, tampering with evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia. She also was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Hospital and was admitted for care; she does not appear to have been jailed at this point.
But the incident resulted in a March 10, 2017, grand jury indictment of Pena for attempt to tamper with evidence. She missed a hearing in July, and a warrant was issued and she was arrested July 31. Before Judge Ellington, she subsequently pleaded guilty to attempt to commit tampering with evidence, got a 364-day suspended sentence and unsupervised probation for 364 days.
Ellington ordered her to obtain naxolone — a life-saving drug that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose — and to complete “an intake assessment” with The Life Link.
Pena also was ordered to complete 12 hours of community service at a homeless shelter, needle exchange program or substance abuse facility.
But within about six weeks, in mid-September, a prosecutor filed for revocation of the probation. Then, on Nov. 27, the prosecutor asked for a hearing, writing in a motion that Pena was in the county jail on other charges. But jail records show she had been released from jail the day before, Nov. 26, after serving two days for failure to appear.
Nov. 26 is the same the day the sheriff’s office says her son Jeremiah Valencia was beaten to death by her boyfriend. Pena told investigators that she found the 13-year-old boy dead on a bed when she returned to the family group’s Nambé home after she was released from jail. Jeremiah’s 14th birthday would have been Dec. 6.
Court records also show that Pena missed a hearing scheduled for Dec. 11. She was arrested on Jan. 17 and has been in jail ever since, awaiting a hearing on her latest probation violation, scheduled for Feb. 21, and now because of the ongoing proceedings in the death of Jeremiah.
That case emerged when another prisoner in the jail talked about Pena’s son’s death.
A detective listened to a recorded jailhouse phone call from January where Pena talked to Ferguson. She told him, “I’ve been crying like every (expletive) day, I cry like almost all night long, every (expletive) day, no matter what, it’s ridiculous.”
When Ferguson asks what she’s cries about, Pena says “for the hito!”