Report: Suspect says he didn’t mean to kill man
Rodriguez stabbed victim because he was ‘just angry at the voices,’ according to statement
A Santa Fe man told police he didn’t mean to fatally stab a neighbor, according to a police statement filed in court and released Monday.
Matthew Rodriguez told police he stabbed Daniel Mitchell, 64, with a steak knife Saturday because he was “just angry at the voices in my head,” according to the statement.
Both men were taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center on Saturday afternoon, and Mitchell died of multiple stab wounds. It was the second homicide of the year in Santa Fe.
Rodriguez, 34, did not enter pleas to charges of first-degree murder and a third-degree felony of evidence tampering during an appearance Monday at Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
Multiple 911 calls on Saturday just after 3 p.m. reported a man down on the 1700 block of Fifth Street, according to the police statement. Emergency personnel found Mitchell lying on the ground at the front door of an apartment.
Rodriguez “began punching himself in the face” while in a police car, according to the statement. When Rodriguez’s hands were restrained, he “began to strike his head against the protective barrier which surrounds the rear seat of the police unit,” the statement says. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of a possible head wound.
At the hospital, according to the attending physician and nurse, Rodriguez said he called 911 about the stabbing and said, “I didn’t realize that I did it,” the police statement says.
Mitchell died of injuries including “numerous stab wounds, two of which were at the center of his chest,” the statement says.
An acquaintance of Rodriguez told police that Rodriguez “is schizophrenic and hears voices in his head,” according to the statement. He also told police that Rodriguez “always carries a kitchen knife with him.”
An officer offered Rodriguez a cup of water while at police headquarters, the statement says, and Rodriguez responded by saying, “The person that I stabbed, what’s going on with him?”
Rodriguez told police in an interview that he did not mean to kill Mitchell, police said. He described the knife he used as a steak knife with a black handle and a 9-inch blade.
Rodriguez told police the stabbing occurred inside Mitchell’s van, where Mitchell had been living, according to the statement.
Santa Fe County Magistrate Donita Sena set a $250,000 cash bond. The court found that Rodriguez “has the propensity of violence” with a criminal history that includes charges of battery on a health care worker, battery against a household member and arson.
Rodriguez remained in the medical unit of Santa Fe County jail on Monday, according to online records. A preliminary hearing is set for April 5 at Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.