APD: Cop shooter back in jail after threat to kill ex
Parole allegedly violated in attack that injured officer during 2017 standoff
A year and a half after he was arrested for allegedly shooting and injuring a police officer during a domestic dispute and SWAT standoff, a man is back behind bars, accused of threatening the same woman again.
Police say Max Villegas, 39, told a friend in November that he had found out where his ex-girlfriend lived since being released and planned to kill her and set her body on fire.
As a result, Villegas was booked into jail last month on probation violations and charged with aggravated stalking.
The new charges come less than a month after Villegas was put on probation on charges stemming from a July 2017 incident in which a fight with his then-girlfriend erupted into a SWAT situation at a Northeast Albuquerque home.
Police say the girlfriend called 911 on July 12. Villegas, who was armed and holed up inside the house in the 3900 block of General Bradley, near Montgomery and Wyoming, shot and injured a SWAT officer before surrendering to police after they fired tear gas into the home.
Villegas was charged with aggravated assault upon a peace officer with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, battery against a household member, child abuse and negligent use of a firearm.
Court records show that Villegas violated his probation almost
immediately by trying to contact his ex-girlfriend and telling a friend he would kill and torture the woman. According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, the friend called police Nov. 6 to report that Villegas said in a phone call that he found out where his ex-girlfriend lived and threatened to “get even” with her.
The friend told police Villegas was planning to “wait for things to cool down” and “when no one suspects anything” he would kill his exgirlfriend and “set her on fire.”
Police say the friend tried to get Villegas to change his mind but that he “kept bringing up threats and bad intentions.”
The friend told police Villegas also said, “I’m not going back to jail,” and mentioned his son’s mother would be a good parent “in his absence.”
“This would cause concern that (Villegas) will carry out his plan to torture and kill (his ex-girlfriend) and then either take his own life or have police officers take his life,” a detective wrote.
The ex-girlfriend told police that he has questioned her family, friends and colleagues about her whereabouts and that she has been “fearful” since his release from jail.