Santa Fe police release interview video of sword slaying suspects
Dec. 7—Body-worn camera video from the first few hours of a Santa Fe police investigation into the shocking October stabbing death of 21-year-old Grace Jennings shows a detective repeatedly questioning suspect Isaac Apodaca about a series of incriminating text messages between him and his co-defendant, Kiara McCulley.
Apodaca denied any involvement in helping plan Jennings' death.
"She was planning on killing Grace. I just didn't want a part of it," Apodaca said in footage released to The New Mexican late Monday.
Apodaca, 25, and 20-year-old McCulley, his girlfriend, were each charged with first-degree murder after Jennings was found dead Oct. 29 inside a garage where the couple lived. Police allege McCulley killed Jennings with a 3-foot sword after conspiring with Apodaca the night before.
Jennings asked Apodaca for a place to stay that evening, Apodaca told police.
"She thought I could be a safe place, that I was a safe person," he said in an interview with Detective Javier Vigil.
Police videos show the two going through numerous text messages in which Apodaca seemed to encourage McCulley to kill Jennings.
The messages — which span from the night of Oct. 28 until the day of the killing — indicate the pair were planning how to clean up a "mess" in the garage. The exchange mentions a remote barn with soundproof walls, and McCulley asks Apodaca in a text to help drive a dagger through Jennings' body.
Apodaca gave Vigil several excuses and explanations for the texts. He said McCulley had sent text messages to her own phone from one of his to make it seem as if he was involved in the plot. He also claimed McCulley had defecated in the couple's bed, which is why they had been discussing how to clean up a mess, and said the barn he mentioned was from a movie, not an alternate location for the killing.
"Can we stop making up lies about these messages? What the hell happened?" Vigil asked him in the interview. "You're going to look me in the eye and you're going to tell me you were trying to talk her out of this? I can see right here you were telling her to do it."
Apodaca said McCulley had been planning to kill Jennings since 2020. He claimed Jennings had sold McCulley into "sex slave[ry]" and told Vigil the Santa Fe Police Department failed to respond to a report of the incident.
After McCulley reported it, he said, "They had actually done nothing. I had to sit there with a detective that was like, 'Oh, all we can do is just keep an eye out for these people.' "
A criminal complaint filed in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court shortly after Jennings' death stated McCulley told officers she was raped by more than 10 men in 2016 and that Jennings had collected money during the incident.
Capt. Aaron Ortiz said in an interview in late October police had received a report of McCulley being sexually assaulted in 2020.
"There is a report ... consistent with the sexual assault, but not with the details that [McCulley] claimed during her interview," Ortiz said.
Footage shows Apodaca told Vigil he had wanted Jennings dead because of the alleged attack on McCulley but said he would not have allowed McCulley to kill Jennings if he had been in the same room.
"If it started ... I would have just separated the two," Apodaca said.
The released videos show police speaking with witnesses, the suspects' relatives and Jennings' family but do not include extensive interviews with McCulley. Some videos show McCulley eating snacks in the interview room and being taken to a restroom. In one video, police ask her questions about transporting her to jail.
A criminal complaint against Apodaca states he went to an AP Wireless store on Jaguar Drive after he found Jennings' body. Body camera footage shows an Oct. 29 police interview with an employee at the store, who said Apodaca was "shook up" when he came in and could barely speak.
The employee said Apodaca maintained his balance by pressing against walls in the store. Apodaca told him he had witnessed "something awful" but could not specify what.
"He just kept stuttering. He couldn't even tell me," the employee said.
The man told officers he overheard Apodaca's phone conversations in which he said someone had been attacked with a display sword.
Apodaca's mother, Linda Montoya, told detectives in a phone conversation her son had recently purchased the sword used to kill Jennings.
Apodaca and McCulley are both being evaluated to see if either is competent to stand trial for Jennings' death.
