Santa Fe man charged after argument leads to stabbing

A 23-year-old Santa Fe man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of stabbing another man multiple times after an early morning hangout led to a heated confrontation, police said.

William Bartrum is charged with one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and was booked into the Santa Fe County jail.

He is accused of stabbing and wounding Mario Vialpando, 29, in the 800 block of Early Street amid a dispute among the two men and three women who had been driving around with them, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

What sparked the argument is not entirely clear.

The complaint says one of the women told an investigator she and the other two women had begun to engage in sexual activity in the car as Vialpando was driving.

Bartrum became upset because she wasn’t paying attention to him, the woman told the investigator, adding Vialpando also became upset and started calling her derogatory names.

This angered another woman in the car, who slapped

Vialpando, the complaint says.

Vialpando, who was yelling, stopped the car and got out, the woman told police, and Bartrum appeared to hit him on the side with a stabbing motion.

Bartrum and Vialpando told investigators different stories.

Vialpando said Bartrum became “mouthy,” so he pulled over and ordered everyone to get out of his car, prompting Bartrum to stab him.

Bartrum first told officers one of the women had stabbed Vialpando and then admitted it was him, the criminal complaint says.

According to the complaint, Bartrum told police he had gotten involved in the sexual encounter between the women, and Vialpando got angry and began punching him, which led to the stabbing.

Vialpando drove himself to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, the complaint says.

A doctor said Vialpando’s three stab wounds, across his left shoulder and back, were not life threatening, according to a Santa Fe police report.

Vialpando’s father, Mark Vialpando, said in a phone interview Tuesday that his son was “not out of the woods totally, but is doing better” and that his son had surgery early Tuesday morning.