Police arrest suspect in Santa Fe killing of mother and her son
Nov. 15—The hunt for a man accused of killing a mother and son in Santa Fe ended Wednesday morning when he was arrested at a home on Albuquerque's west side.
Jose Antonio "Adrian" Roman, 44, of Albuquerque was arrested without incident between 9 and 10 a.m. Wednesday morning at a residence off Central Avenue, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office confirmed. The effort involved New Mexico State Police and Albuquerque police, as well as the sheriff's office. Albuquerque police indicated in an alert the site was near 98th Street.
Roman's address listed in recent court documents is in a mobile home community on Central Avenue in western Albuquerque.
Roman, accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, Carmen Navarrete, 46, and her 16-year-old son, Axel Gonzales, at their home off West Alameda Street in Santa Fe, faces two counts of first-degree murder and a host of other felony charges, including shooting at an occupied building, child abuse and assault.
The tragedy occurred less than two weeks after state police obtained an arrest warrant for Roman, charging him with several felonies tied to an Oct. 28 incident in Albuquerque in which Navarrete alleged he had harmed her and threatened her life. The warrant was never executed. A temporary domestic violence protective order a state court had issued against Roman also did not protect her from the deadly violence.
Roman's son called Albuquerque police Monday night to report his father had left with a shotgun and might try to harm Navarrete, but Santa Fe County deputies were dispatched minutes too late — arriving as Roman was attempting to drive away.
Roman's son waited more than an hour after his father left Albuquerque to call police, reports state.
A deputy wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit Roman had rammed the deputy's vehicle before driving the truck into a ditch nearby and then running off, which prompted a multi-agency search.
Several family members were in the home on Prince of Peace, a small county road off West Alameda, when shots were fired from outside, according to the affidavit. Gripped with fear, they barricaded themselves in separate rooms, they told sheriff's office investigators.
Navarrete's daughter Priscilla Gonzales, 24, who was in the house during the shooting, said in an interview Wednesday her mother and brother "were good people" and "they didn't deserve this."
Her mother, a Christian, attended church regularly and worked in Santa Fe, Gonzales said. She declined to provide further details. She wished to keep her mother's story for the family and others who knew her, she said.
"It was a really terrible way for them to have gone," Gonzales said.
Navarrete told state police in late October she had dated Roman for several years before he beat her for the first time Oct. 28 at his home in Albuquerque. She alleged he had choked her, physically abused her with a rifle and threatened to kill her. A warrant for his arrest was issued Nov. 1, charging him with several felonies.
Navarrete submitted a petition in state District Court on Nov. 8 for a domestic violence protective order. A judge granted a temporary order the following day, and a hearing was scheduled Nov. 29 on her request for a longer-term protective order against Roman.
She wrote in the complaint, "He became my former partner the moment he hit me, and I don't want to see him again."
The order, which called for Roman to keep away from Navarrete, is enforceable by arrest, and a violation could be cause for a criminal charge.
State police spokesmen did not return an email Wednesday asking about the agency's practices regarding arrest warrants such as the one issued against Roman earlier this month.
Albuquerque police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos wrote in an email Wednesday the department might receive a call from another law enforcement agency about a warrant for a particularly dangerous, high-profile suspect, but most warrants issued by another agency would not necessarily be executed by city officers unless they happened to encounter a suspect.
"Our officers would not be informed in any formal way," Gallegos wrote. "It is a command by a court for any law enforcement officer who comes across someone with a warrant to arrest that person."
An attorney and gun policy advocate in Santa Fe said the deaths of Nevarrete and her son spotlight how much more dangerous it can be "when a woman does everything right" in an abusive situation.
Sheila Lewis, a former criminal defense attorney who now works with the Santa Fe-based nonprofit New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, trains police officers and others about the state's extreme risk firearm protective orders, which can be issued by a court to seize firearms from people who are at risk of harming themselves or others.
It is "very difficult" to say whether such an order could have prevented any particular shooting, Lewis said.
Still, she said, similar orders issued under "red flag" laws in other states appear to be effective at preventing suicide as well as protecting domestic abuse victims.
The red flag law in New Mexico is "by far the most ineffective" of those across 21 states, Lewis said, due to differences in how the orders are issued and how guns are seized.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez recently called for changes to strengthen the state's red flag law and outlined a plan that includes training for police on how to enforce it.
