IAPE Evidence Blog

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Albu­querque, NM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 31-year-old man accused of giv­ing his semen dis­guised as a free yogurt sam­ple may face a bat­tery charge for the inci­dent, police say.

Albu­querque police said DNA tests showed Sun­flower Mar­ket employee Anthony Gar­cia gave his semen to a female cus­tomer dis­guised as a free yogurt sam­ple, and police sources said the man may have tried the same thing at a dif­fer­ent Sun­flower location.

“The Albu­querque Police Depart­ment con­firmed that the sam­ple taken last week from the Sun­flower Mar­ket was semen,” said Trish Hoff­man, of the Albu­querque Police Depart­ment. “It was con­firmed that the sam­ple was from Anthony Garcia.”

Police said Gar­cia was booked on an out­stand­ing war­rant for a crim­i­nal sex­ual con­tact of a minor, but it’s what he’s accused of doing inside a store that has received national attention.

Inves­ti­ga­tors said Gar­cia offered a female cus­tomer a sam­ple of what he said was Greek yogurt, but she called the police. The police did a DNA test and now, Gar­cia may face a bat­tery charge.

Police said that another alle­ga­tion has been waged against Gar­cia after the first vic­tim accused him of pass­ing off semen as yogurt.

“(We) have never dealt with a case like this in all the years (that) I’ve been in law enforce­ment. It’s hor­rific. It’s hor­rific for the vic­tim,” Hoff­man said.

Hoff­man said even the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion is involved with the investigation.

“If in fact there was a tam­per­ing with the food, (FDA offi­cials) could pos­si­bly seek charges,” Hoff­man said.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

Small­Town­Pa­pers, Inc., The Raton Range (New Mex­ico)
BYLINE: Todd Wildermuth

Col­fax County, NM

Money and mar­i­juana are miss­ing from the evi­dence room of the Col­fax County Sheriff’s Office and state police are inves­ti­gat­ing the situation.

“There is some evi­dence miss­ing,” Sher­iff Pat Casias con­firmed. He said when the evi­dence was dis­cov­ered miss­ing about three weeks ago, he requested state police investigate.

A state police spokesman said the inves­ti­ga­tion is continuing.

Casias declined to com­ment fur­ther on the sit­u­a­tion, cit­ing the ongo­ing investigation.

County Man­ager Don Day said he has received some infor­ma­tion about what is allegedly miss­ing. He said the miss­ing items are about $21,000 and some mar­i­juana. He did not know how much mar­i­juana. Day said the money — likely seized as sus­pected drug money from some­one trav­el­ing through the area — had already been for­feited to the sheriff’s depart­ment by a court, but the money had not yet been deposited in the bank.

The evi­dence room from which the items turned up miss­ing is in the sheriff’s depart­ment in the county cour­t­house on North Third Street.

Eighth Judi­cial Dis­trict Attor­ney Don­ald Gal­le­gos in Taos said Tues­day state police have not yet given his office a report from the inves­ti­ga­tion of the miss­ing evi­dence. He said that when the report is turned in, he will likely be the one to review it ini­tially and decide the next step to avoid his staff in Raton — which works reg­u­larly with the Col­fax County Sheriff’s Office — hav­ing to han­dle it. Gal­le­gos said he could decide to pass on the report and fur­ther decision-making process — which could include poten­tial crim­i­nal charges — to a dis­trict attor­ney out­side the Eighth Judi­cial Dis­trict of Taos, Col­fax and Union coun­ties to avoid any real or per­ceived con­flict of interest.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

Las Cruces Sun-News (New Mex­ico)
By Ash­ley Meeks Sun-News reporter

Las Cruces, NM

LAS CRUCES — A crim­i­nal “John Doe” war­rant will be filed this week for the man sus­pected in a vio­lent rape that took place under a bridge on the banks of the Rio Grande in June, Doña Ana Sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Rey­naud said Tuesday. 

If caught, the man likely will face charges of crim­i­nal sex­ual pen­e­tra­tion, kid­nap­ping, and pos­si­bly aggra­vated bat­tery and oth­ers, offi­cers have pre­vi­ously said.

A DNA pro­file of the man was com­pleted in mid-August and, while it doesn’t match any­one already logged into the county’s sys­tem, it has yet to be matched against the national Com­bined DNA Index Sys­tem and the FBI’s database.

The “John Doe” war­rant will pro­tect against the seven-year statute of lim­i­ta­tions for fil­ing a war­rant expir­ing, Rey­naud said.
“We haven’t received any­thing fresh in a while,” Rey­naud said.
Late on the night of June 1, the man passed a 25-year-old Las Cruces woman walk­ing home from work sev­eral times on Burke Road, killed his lights and strik­ing her with his car. After the 10 mph to 15 mph col­li­sion, which knocked the woman’s head onto the pave­ment, requir­ing stitches, the man allegedly got out, asked if she needed help, placed her in his car and took her to the river.

He then raped her repeat­edly on the west bank of the Rio Grande at a long­time party loca­tion nick­named Thou­sand Poles, under­neath the Inter­state 10 bridge, west of Motel Boulevard.

After­ward, he drove the woman back to Burke Road, three miles away.

The man was ini­tially described as a His­panic man between 20 and 30 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a medium build and short, black hair. The front pas­sen­ger seat of his vehi­cle, pos­si­bly a dark-colored SUV with a gray inte­rior, was believe to be stained with a sub­stan­tial amount of blood. Because of the dark­ness and the con­di­tions of the inci­dent, no com­pos­ite sketch was made.

The inci­dent remains under inves­ti­ga­tion and the sheriff’s office con­tin­ues to search for the vehicle’s dri­ver. Any­one with infor­ma­tion on the inci­dent is asked to call (575) 525‑1911 or, after 5 p.m., (575) 526‑1795, or, from out­side Las Cruces, (800) 332‑2121 or (800) 260‑0911.

Ash­ley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541‑5462.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org