Police: Man accused in downtown stabbing has violent past
Suspect linked to other violent crimes has been in and out of jail since October
A man accused in multiple violent incidents in Santa Fe over the past year is behind bars again on suspicion of stabbing a woman in the downtown area early Friday morning.
Matthew Culley, 19, was arrested on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, tampering with evidence and larceny, according to a criminal complaint by the Santa Fe Police Department.
Culley was charged in a similar case in October, when he was accused of stabbing Five & Dime General Store employee Corry Graves. Police said Graves, who no longer works at the store, suspected Culley had shoplifted items and followed him to the De Vargas Skatepark, where Culley is accused of stabbing Graves with a pocketknife.
The Friday morning attack was in almost the same location.
According to Santa Fe police reports, a 41-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times near Galisteo and West De Vargas streets before 3 a.m. Friday.
She made her way to the Hotel St. Francis, police reports say, and hotel staff called an ambulance. Police say she had a “golf-ball sized contusion” on the left side of her head; had dried blood on her hands and face; and had suffered stab wounds to her abdomen, rib cage, breast and back.
The woman was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where she was in stable condition Friday afternoon and was expected to survive, said Greg Gurulé, a spokesman for the police department.
The woman told police she had been attacked by a man with “poofy” hair who was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt. She later identified Culley in photographs, police records say.
Police said they found Culley, who is listed as homeless in court documents, in a camping spot along the Santa Fe River under the Galisteo Street bridge. He was wearing clothing the woman had described, and police said he had blood stains on his pants.
Around Culley, police reports say, officers found the woman’s purse, her cellphone and documents with her name on them.
Culley was arrested without incident, according to police.
Lt. Paul Joye, who oversees the police department’s investigations unit, said detectives are not yet sure why Culley might have stabbed the woman.
“We’re still trying to work on what a motive was, or may have been, or if it was a spontaneous action,” Joye said Friday.
Police believe the stabbing victim is homeless, Joye said, and that she met Culley on Thursday evening. There is no indication she and Culley had any kind of relationship before then, he said.
Police had cleared the scene of the stabbing by midday Friday.
What remained was a pool of blood in a pavilion near Sandoval and De Vargas streets, and a trail of blood droplets led across streets and sidewalks toward the Hotel St. Francis.
Culley — who also is known as Mathew Culley, Mathew Cullry, Treyvon Miller and Treyvon Tibbs, according to one court document — has been jailed multiple times since the October stabbing at the skatepark.
In November, he was accused of beating and robbing Michael Willms, 58, a Santa Fe man named who told police the two had been engaged in a romantic relationship, according to court documents.
Willms was killed in late June. Police say he was stabbed to death at a midtown apartment complex where he lived.
Inmate records show Culley was in the Santa Fe County jail at the time of Willms’ death, held on kidnapping and armed robbery charges in Willms’ home invasion and beating in November.
Police have not yet solved Willms’ homicide.
Joye said investigators are still collecting forensic evidence in the case.
While the home invasion, which police believe Culley conducted with two other men, is a potential lead in the homicide, Joye said it’s not the only thing that investigators are scrutinizing in connection with Willms’ death.
“We’re trying to keep all of our options open,” Joye said. “I don’t want to tunnel-vision on one thing and miss a possible lead elsewhere.”
A few days after Willms died, prosecutors dropped the kidnapping and beating charges against Culley, saying they couldn’t move forward with the case without the victim, and Culley was released.
He has been incarcerated once since then, jail logs show, for missing a court hearing on the felony charges in the Five & Dime stabbing case, but he was released about two weeks ago on an unsecured appearance bond with a GPS tracker.
Graves, the Five & Dime employee who was stabbed at the skatepark last year, moved to Maryland some months after the incident. He was surprised to learn about the series of events that have since transpired.
“They need to keep him in jail,” Graves said of Culley.
“I don’t want to say that about someone so young,” Graves added, “but he stabbed me, he beat up his ex-lover, he stabbed this girl. … I hope he gets the help he needs to get better. I would hate to see this happen to anybody else.”