Protests planned in case with missing evidence
Defense attorney is seeking to have murder charge tossed
Friends and family members of a young Santa Fe woman who was stabbed to death in 2017 are frustrated with a system they fear won’t bring justice for 21-year-old Selena Valencia.
They plan to demonstrate outside the state district courthouse in Santa Fe during an upcoming hearing when a judge will consider a motion arguing charges against the man accused of killing Valencia — her boyfriend at the time — should be dropped because important evidence has gone missing.
“It seems crazy to me that they are even considering letting someone go who did something like this without any consequences,” said Joyce Gurule, a longtime friend of Valencia’s family who is organizing demonstrations during what is expected to be a four-day hearing. The larger goal, she said, is to bring awareness
about domestic violence.
Christopher Garcia, 28, is accused of stabbing Valencia more than a dozen times June 22, 2017, in a home they shared at Vista Alegre Apartments in southwest Santa Fe.
At the time, police said Garcia had left Valencia to die in a pool of her own blood and then beat a man in a neighboring apartment with a crutch and stabbed a bicyclist riding past the housing complex before police found him about six hours later.
Garcia is charged with first-degree murder and is scheduled to go on trial at the end of October, but his defense attorney, Jennifer Burrill, filed a motion in July asking the court to dismiss the charges due to missing evidence.
The Santa Fe Police Department acknowledges it has lost key evidence in the case, including Valencia’s fingernail clippings and a hair taken from her body.
But state prosecutors argue they have plenty of other evidence connecting Garcia to Valencia’s slaying and the case should go to trial.
State District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer is scheduled to hear arguments on the issue in a hearing set to begin Friday and to continue Sept. 30 through Oct. 2. Those are the days when Gurule — who said Valencia was like a daughter to her — and others plan to demonstrate.
“We are hoping Judge Marlowe Sommer doesn’t find that the charges should be dropped,” Gurule said.
“I understand he is innocent until proven guilty,” she added, “but there is so much evidence against [Garcia] that isn’t lost that points to him.”
Valencia’s father, Ramos Valencia, said Friday he doesn’t think the lost evidence was an accident.
“I can’t even explain how frustrated I am with the justice system,” he said. “It’s corrupt from the ground all the way to the top. It’s not just with our case.”
When the missing evidence came to light, he said, “the first thing that came to my head was, ‘This is an inside job. [Garcia’s] family knows somebody in there.’ ”
Burrill said Ramos Valencia’s suspicions seem “implausible” to her because Garcia has no prior criminal record and no history of cooperating with police as an informant.
Gurule has organized vigils every year since Selena Valencia’s death, including a group “cruise” followed by a gathering at Alto Park.
In the future, she said, she’d like to make the remembrances of Valencia’s life and death bigger, perhaps by holding a car show and fundraiser in the slain woman’s name to raise money for local groups that provide services for victims of domestic violence.
Gurule said the group plans to begin demonstrating outside District Court at 9 a.m. Friday. The public is invited to participate.