Police: Murder suspect described as ‘sociopath’
Man told landlord he drove around with body for hours
SANTA FE — People who knew Gregg Steele, the man accused of fatally shooting Taos coffee shop owner Patrick Larkin, describe him as a violent man who spoke openly about killing people he felt had wronged him.
Steele, also known as Greg Steele, is charged with one count of second-degree murder, one count of armed robbery and two counts of tampering with evidence for allegedly killing Larkin, dumping his body and taking Larkin’s .22-caliber rifle. Taos prosecutors have filed a petition to keep Steele in jail
until trial.
Larkin, who owned the World Cup Cafe near the Taos Plaza, was reported missing after he left his home in the Llano Quemado area south of town around 2 a.m. Aug. 27 to check on his goats and never returned.
A State Police arrest warrant affidavit says Larkin’s body was found the next day in a bush about 1½ miles from his home with bullet wounds to his knee and chest. Investigators learned that Larkin and Steele, who lived nearby, had disputes over Steele’s dogs attacking Larkin’s livestock. One of the Larkin’s goats was found dead the morning Larkin was reported missing, and the state Department of Game and Fish believe it was possibly mauled by a dog, the affidavit says.
The man who owns the property Steele was living on came forward and told police that Steele told him he shot Larkin with a handgun and put the body in his pickup and drove the body around Taos for “several hours.” Steele also was said to have acknowledged he disposed of the murder weapon and Larkin’s .22-caliber rifle. Larkin’s blood was found on Steele’s truck, the affidavit says.
Agents spoke to all of Larkin’s neighbors, except for Steele, who did not answer his door or his phone. He was later located by personnel from the Taos County Sheriff’s Office and was arrested and initially charged only with resisting an officer. Steele requested an attorney before State Police could ask him about Larkin’s death, the affidavit says.
Several “associates” of Steele were interviewed. His ex-fiancée said he had a pattern of violence and harassment toward others and described him as a “sociopath,” according to the police statement. She said she had a recording of him after he pushed his way into her home after their breakup “and spoke at length about how little he valued human life, and how he desired to shoot people who he disagreed with,” the affidavit says.
The woman also said she had text messages from Steele in which he said he ran into an exgirlfriend in the woods by chance and that he could “shoot her in the head and bury her in the forest and no one would ever know.” Others told police that he was “known to have a short fuse” and talked about exacting physical revenge on or burning the houses of those he perceived to have wronged him, the affidavit says.
Earlier this month Steele was also charged with two counts of receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle and two counts of altering or changing engine numbers. In 1996, a Taos man named Gregory Steele faced federal criminal charges for leaving a campfire unattended and starting the Dome Fire, which burned over 16,700 acres. The charges were dropped, but he and another camper were fined $8.5 million. That amount was later reduced to $200,000.