One teen released, two held in La Luz murder
Arrest warrant affidavits remain sealed
One of the three Taos teenagers charged with shooting and killing a 52-year-old woman and injuring her 19-year-old son was released from the Lea County Juvenile Detention Center, while the other two defendants were ordered to be held at San Juan Juvenile Detention Center after three separate hearings were held this past week.
Javier Romero, 16, Elijah Hamilton and Rickey Fresquez, both age 14, were all charged on Oct. 7 with shooting and killing Shirley Reyes during an apparent attempted burglary at her home on La Luz Drive.
Her son, Alejandro Reyes, was also shot during the incident and remains in critical condition in a hospital outside Taos County.
All three teens face the same charges: first-degree murder; conspiracy to commit murder (a second-degree felony); aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon (a second-degree felony); aggravated battery with a deadly weapon (a third-degree felony); and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (a fourth-degree felony).
On Tuesday morning (Oct. 11), Fresquez — the last of the three teens to be arrested by law enforcement — appeared in 8th Judicial District Court before Judge Emilio
Chavez and was ordered to be held at the detention center until trial. Romero was transported from the Lea County Juvenile Detention Center to the San Juan Juvenile Detention center last Saturday (Oct. 8) where he remains, Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said. Hamilton was ultimately released to his parents, but court records as of press time didn’t indicate why.
Local public defender Aleks Kostich represented Fresquez during his Tuesday hearing, while state prosecutors Darryl Bouchard, Tim Hassen and Robert Fitzgerald laid out the state’s case.
Details behind the motive for the killing remain unclear, however. Affidavits for arrest warrants filed in the 8th Judicial District Court remain sealed to the public, though certain details emerged during the hearings.
Bouchard said the early-morning incident occurred when the three teenagers went to Reyes’ house because “they had something to take care of.” He said they ultimately shot the mother and son with a shotgun, killing Shirley Reyes and sending Alejandro Reyes to the hospital in serious condition. New Mexico State Police Public Information Officer Mark Soriano said in an email to the Taos News, however, that multiple “firearms were seized” during the investigation, leaving a question as to whether more than one of the defendants fired a weapon.
Claudia Guttierez, Reyes’ daughter and Alejandro’s sister, told the court that her brother has been in a medically-induced coma since Saturday (Oct. 8), and that surgeons had operated on his lung and his hand. She said surgeons were still deciding whether amputation was necessary. “We have a long road ahead of us,” she said during testimony. “I don’t know how this is going to affect him, but he’s the strongest person I know.”
During Fresquez’s hearing, Bouchard said the 14-year-old returned home on Oct. 6 and told a family member that he was involved in the incident. However, when he was brought to state police by his grandmother, Bouchard said Fresquez tried to escape from her vehicle.
Prior to the shooting, New Mexico State Police had reported Fresquez as a missing runaway four times from his home in Ranchos de Taos. During his detention hearing, the state noted Fresquez had been named in a previous case involving the theft of an automobile and had been on probation.
“We do recommend detention for the safety of the community, and because we believe Mr. Fresquez is a flight risk,” Bouchard told the court after discussing his prior charges. Chavez said that due to Fresquez’s previous history of running away, that he would remain incarcerated at the San Juan County Juvenile Detention Center.
The state filed a motion to keep Hamilton in a juvenile detention center, but Judge Chavez released him on an ankle monitor into his parents custody late Tuesday evening (Oct. 11).