Suspects arrested in triple slaying
Pair face charges including first-degree murder
Two men suspected of killing three people in a home near Dixon this week were arrested Friday evening by New Mexico State Police.
John Powell, 34, of Taos and Roger Gage, 33, of Arroyo Hondo were taken into custody during a traffic stop in El Prado, a Taos County community. They were expected to be booked into the Rio Arriba County jail on three charges of first-degree murder, as well as counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, aggravated burglary and conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, state police said in a news release.
News of the arrests came about an hour after state police released the men’s names and sought the
public’s help in locating them pair, who they believed were armed and dangerous and traveling in a white Volkswagen Rabbit pickup.
Officers soon after spotted the vehicle in the small community north of Taos.
No one was hurt when officers took the men into custody, the news release said.
Powell and Gage are suspected of killing three people in a hilltop home overlooking N.M. 580 in Cañoncito, about two miles east of Dixon.
According to state police Officer Ray Wilson, a witness spotted bodies inside the home Wednesday evening and called the agency to report the deaths. The agency responded to the report Wednesday but didn’t enter the house until early Thursday morning after obtaining search warrants, Wilson said.
Neighbors and other members of the Dixon community said the home had a reputation for drug activity. Several people said a high volume of traffic in and out of the home fueled those suspicions.
By Friday evening, state police had not released details of the homicides or whether they thought the crimes were drug related. Police also did not release the identifies of the victims.
Wilson said it could take days for the state Office of the Medical Investigator to determine the cause of death in the slayings.
According to close friends and family, a local farmer and a mother of two were among the victims.
On Thursday, Roxanne Sanchez of Vadito said one of the victims was her boyfriend, Kierin Guillemin, 27, a farmer who had lived with her in Vadito until recently. Guillemin had moved from New Jersey about five years ago, Sanchez said.
Guillemin’s employer, Kristen Davenport of Boxcar Farm in nearby Llano, confirmed that Guillemin had been missing from work in recent days and said she had called state police Wednesday, asking officers to check on him.
Sanchez said she had dated Guillemin for about three years, after meeting him at a ski resort. He’d broken his leg in a dirt bike accident recently, Sanchez said, and may have started taking pain medication after the crash.
Guillemin was “calm, gentle and quiet,” Sanchez said. “Except, when he found a conversation about farming, he could not stop the conversation.”
On Friday night, the family of April Browne, 42, emailed a statement to the media, identifying her as another victim. Neighbors told that Browne lived in the house where the homicides occurred.
Browne’s family said she was a native of Dixon, a valedictorian of a Taos high school and a mother of two.
“She was also an addict whose life choices probably led to her death,” the email said. “We know we are not the only family to suffer the loss of a loved one because of the world of drugs … but we really hope that we could be the last.”
Browne’s criminal history shows at least two charges for drug-related crimes in the last decade. According to online court records, she was arrested on charges of possessing drug paraphernalia in 2014. That case was dismissed when prosecutors failed to appear, court records say.
She was charged again in 2016 with possession of methamphetamine, court records show. She violated court orders in that case by testing positive for methamphetamines and opiates in early 2017, documents say.
Neither of the suspects appears to have a history of violent crime in New Mexico, according to online court documents, though Gage did face a charge of negligently using a deadly weapon while intoxicated in 2013. That case was dismissed.
On Thursday, after learning about the homicides, a group of nearby residents sat on the porch of a co-op grocery store in Dixon, enjoying the shade on a hot day.
A question about the tragedy just up the street immediately prompted a discussion about drug addiction in the community.
Gaia Khan, a farmer and an artist in town, said New Mexico needs to offer more accessible drug treatment.
“I think the drug problem affects every level of our society,” she said. “… It’s not like we want people to go to jail and disappear. We want them to get help.”
One man said he thinks New Mexico needs to do a better job of helping youth who have trauma or family issues that could spiral into drug abuse.
But for people in Dixon and other small New Mexico towns, Khan said, help is often too far away or too expensive.
“There is no help for them,” she said.