Man accused of robbery arrested in drug bust
Jacket found in raid matched description of one worn by suspect in Dollar General store burglary
A Santa Fe man accused of burglarizing a Dollar General store near Eldorado late last week was one of six people arrested the same day in connection with a drug bust at a home on Arroyo Central in southwest Santa Fe.
A statement of probable cause filed Monday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court says Tommy Lovato, 30, who attempted to flee from the scene, faces charges of receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, resisting or evading an officer and concealing identity.
He was arrested near the Arroyo Central home and booked at the Santa Fe County jail, where he was further charged with assault on a peace officer. Court records allege he refused to accept documents outlining his burglary charges and attempted to fight a correctional officer. He was subdued with pepper spray.
Santa Fe County sheriff’s detectives, the Albuquerque Police Department’s Central Narcotics Unit and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration executed a search warrant at the Arroyo Central home Thursday, according to a social media post by the sheriff’s office.
The bust led to six arrests, although the identities of the other five suspects and any potential charges they face are unknown.
Charging documents on those suspects were not available in court.
Sheriff’s office spokesman Juan Ríos said it’s likely some of the suspects were arrested on open warrants, and detectives were still working on charges for the remaining suspects.
Ríos was unable to provide an incident report of the raid Tuesday.
Lovato is accused of burglarizing the Dollar General store on Camino Valle around 5 a.m. Thursday.
The bust, later that day, was prompted by a tip from a confidential informant, who told law enforcement about several locations where drugs were being sold on a “continuous and ongoing basis,” according to court documents. The informant told a sheriff’s deputy he would be willing to make a purchase from the Arroyo Central home, leading to a search warrant issued Feb. 4.
As law enforcement conducted the raid Thursday, a man and woman attempted to flee by jumping a fence. The man later was identified as Lovato, according to the statement of probable cause.
He and the woman were detained, and deputies found them with a silver container Lovato said held methamphetamine, the document says.
During the investigation, deputies told the woman she was wearing a black jacket that matched the description of a coat worn by a man captured in surveillance footage burglarizing the Dollar General. The woman she had received the coat from Lovato after walking to the Arroyo Central home, the statement says.
Deputies reported they had seen Lovato’s face in the surveillance video, and he was wearing the same pants and shoes as the burglary suspect when he was arrested during the drug raid.
A white Subaru deputies believe he had driven to the home was reported stolen Feb. 8, court documents say.
penalties for some violent offenses and a prohibition on pretrial release for charges of severe violent or sexual crimes.
Many legislators in the Democratic majority so far have shunned the proposal to strictly limit pretrial release, instead focusing on ways to improve monitoring of defendants through ankle-bracelet locators. And some enhanced penalties appear to have fallen by the wayside — including stiffer sentences for second-degree murder.
Another component of the law would expand a gun violence reduction program, pioneered in Albuquerque, that focuses on deterrence measures for people likely to fall into cycles of violence.
Democratic Sens. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces, Natalie Figueroa of Albuquerque and Meredith Dixon of Albuquerque are sponsoring the legislation.
In a vote Tuesday afternoon, a Senate committee added enhanced penalties for violent crimes, and new criminal definitions for chop shops and theft of metal, like stripping copper wiring from homes and construction sites. The measures passed without objection, despite some hesitation.
“My gut tells me that we shouldn’t be increasing the felonies at all, in the absence of any evidence it’s worked, and the fact that we’ve done it twice in two years already, but I understand it’s an election year,” Cervantes said.
The legislation sets out requirements for crime reduction grants that pursue alternatives to traditional prosecution and incarceration, with requirements for regular performance reviews.