Talpa man pleads not guilty in death of girlfriend
A Talpa man accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend on Oct. 24 appeared virtually from the Taos County Adult Detention Center on Monday (Oct. 24) before 8th Judicial District Judge Emilio Chavez for an arraignment.
Jeremiah Rael, 31, has been charged with the first-degree murder of his girlfriend, Brandi Davis, 44. Rael entered a plea of not guilty through his attorney, public defender Aleks Kostich.
The case is being prosecuted by 8th Judicial District prosecutor Cosme Ripol and will likely be set as a track two or three case under the new state Supreme Court Rule addressing case scheduling. Track three cases are the most complicated, and are allowed the most time for preparation before trial under the new rule.
“With our new criminal scheduling rule, we will have a status in 30 days. I won’t tell you, even based on the allegations, it doesn’t mean necessarily it would be a track three [case], but it would potentially be a track two,” Chavez said.
Both Kostich and Ripol agreed the case is complicated and that it may take more time than track two — the shorter of the two timelines — would allow.
“I’ll go right ahead and say I believe it’s, I believe it’s going to be three,” Kostich said.
“The state concurs, Judge,” Ripol added.
Rael has been held at the county jail since he turned himself in to law enforcement after Davis was found deceased outside a home in Talpa with an apparent bullet wound to the head. According to police reports, Davis was discovered by two kids biking in the area, who alerted their grandfather to the scene.
“Neighbors reported hearing a gunshot at around 3 p.m. that afternoon,” stated a press release from New Mexico State Police Public Information Officer Ray Wilson at the time of the incident. “Jeremiah [Rael], who initially fled the scene, turned himself in to the New Mexico State Police office in Taos at around 9 p.m.”
Reports of a tumultuous relationship between Rael and Davis have emerged since her death.
“They had met online and started talking. She found out he lived a block away from her,” a friend of Davis’ told the Santa Fe New Mexican earlier this month. “It wasn’t long before he moved in. He had been living with his mom. “Six months into it, she started talking about all the hell she was having with Jeremiah [Rael] and all the crazy things she’d been through leading up to this tragedy. [Davis] said they were going to try to work it out and make a life and forget about it.”
Rael eventually turned himself into police after his mother picked him up while walking along NM 518.
He has been held without bond on one charge of first-degree murder since Sept. 30. No future court dates have been set as of press time Wednesday (Oct. 26).