Police arrest Indiana man accused of strangling pregnant girlfriend

Jan. 9—Santa Fe police arrested an Indiana man Sunday and accused him of battering and strangling his pregnant girlfriend before barricading himself inside her apartment, prompting a short standoff with a SWAT team.

Adam Evans, 27, faces a variety of charges, including aggravated battery against a household member and false imprisonment, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

Police responded Sunday at about 8:10 a.m. to the Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center emergency room after a nurse treating Evans' girlfriend reported the alleged altercation. The woman told officers she got into a fight with her boyfriend earlier in the morning after looking at his phone and finding messages from a woman with whom she'd previously had a physical altercation, according to the complaint.

She told Evans he was "fake" for messaging the woman. He responded by insulting his girlfriend and pushing her off her bed, the complaint states.

"[She] began to cry because she is 17 weeks pregnant and was afraid the baby may have been harmed," according to the complaint. "Adam then stood in front of the bedroom door preventing her from leaving the room as she picked herself up and sat onto the bed."

Evans held his girlfriend down with his body before repeatedly strangling her, the complaint states. He is accused of choking her until she was about to lose consciousness, stopping, then continuing for about 15 minutes.

Evans also head-butted the woman multiple times before threatening to kill her, according to the complaint.

"She began telling Adam he could do what he wanted to her, but she needed to go to the hospital for the baby," the complaint states.

The woman told officers he agreed to take her to the hospital. However, she ran out of her South Meadows Road apartment while he was busy looking through her phone. The complaint states she drove to her mother's house, who took her to the hospital.

When officers arrived at the apartment complex, they immediately noticed a man matching Evans' description go inside an apartment, police said in a news release Monday. Evans spoke with officers through a closed door, and initially agreed to surrender to police after talking with his mother by telephone. However, he stopped responding to law enforcement about 15 minutes later.

Police waited more than an hour before activating a SWAT team response at about 12:30 p.m. Evans surrendered about 20 minutes later after a flash-bang device was deployed inside the apartment, according to the complaint.

Santa Fe police Lt. Thomas Grundler said he did not know if police reached out to Evans' mother during the incident to help convince him to surrender, or if he called her.

Police encouraged Evans's girlfriend to obtain a temporary restraining order against her boyfriend, Deputy Chief Matthew Champlin wrote in an email. He added Evans arrived in Santa Fe in September, but he did not know where in Indiana Evans is originally from.

Evans was booked into the Santa Fe County jail Sunday afternoon, according to the facility's online records.

State prosecutors requested a 24-hour delay on Evans' first hearing to investigate the case further, and will decide whether to file a motion to detain him pending trial, according to documents filed Monday in Magistrate Court.