Police: Son robs mom for drug money
High-speed chase through Española ends after crash
An Española man is accused of robbing his mother Sunday, allegedly for drug money, and then stealing her car and leading police on a high-speed chase through the city.
It ended with him crashing into a parked pickup and being subdued by officers with a stun gun, police said.
A criminal complaint filed by police Monday against Cecilio “Leon” Vigil, 43, says that at around 5:30 p.m., Vigil’s mother called police saying that her son had taken her purse and her white 2006 Hyundai Sonata. An officer spotted the car at North Coronado Avenue and Spruce Street, outside Presbyterian Española Hospital, and pursued it several blocks to Paseo De Oñate, where the driver pulled over, the document says.
During the traffic stop, as the officer parked his vehicle and opened the door, the Sonata took off “at a high rate of speed and very erratic,” reaching a speed of about 70 mph on County Road 7, the complaint says. At the intersection of county roads 13 and 16, the Sonata’s driver lost control, crashed through a fence outside a home, and landed on top of a small pickup, according to police.
Vigil ignored an officer’s commands to show his hands and exit the vehicle, the complaint says, and was removed by the officer and a sergeant who arrived on
scene. Police said Vigil was still not compliant and the sergeant used a stun gun on him. Vigil was then handcuffed and placed under arrest.
When officers returned the mother’s purse and its contents, she told them that she had picked up her son from the hospital earlier that day and “he began yelling and acting irate due to the fact he wanted money for heroin,” police said.
The mother told officers Vigil pushed her, grabbed her purse and took her car.
Vigil is accused of robbery, aggravated fleeing of a law enforcement officer, motor vehicle theft and resisting officers.