Suspect in May attack faced charges in 1998 shooting death
May 28—A suspect police apprehended with the help of civilians earlier this month after he was accused of battering several people in the downtown area is a career criminal once charged with murder, according to court records.
Marcos Antonio Montoya, 43, was arrested earlier this month after police said he committed a string of violent batteries — including two at downtown hotels and one on West Manhattan Ave., where he was accused of pistol-whipping award-winning jeweler Lawrence Baca outside his studio.
Montoya had just been released from prison on probation in January, a spokeswoman for the state Corrections Department confirmed Friday.
A state district judge in Sandoval County, Christopher G. Perez, released him from probation in January after ruling his probation had been incorrectly calculated.
Assistant District Attorney Kara Kupper, a prosecutor in Sandoval County, filed a motion April 8, asking the court to set a hearing to clarify the details of Montoya's amended sentence. It appears a hearing was never set.
Prosecutors have asked the court to hold Montoya without bond until the 19 charges against him — including multiple counts of battery, aggravated assault and battery on a peace officer — are resolved.
A May 16 hearing on that motion was continued at the request of Montoya's defense attorney, a spokeswoman for the Public Defender's Office said Friday. A status hearing in the case is scheduled to take place Tuesday.
Online court records list a Rio Rancho address for Montoya but also indicate he may be from Santa Fe. His criminal record includes Santa Fe charges of shoplifting and robbery from 1994 and 1995, when Montoya was still a minor, and show he continued to commit crimes after that, resulting in a life spent largely in prison.
Court records and reports from the time also reveal Montoya was charged with murder in 2010 in connection with the 1998 shooting death of Mitchell Hanrahan, 44, who was found dead in his apartment of South Meadows Road.
The charge was dismissed by the District Attorney's Office in April 2011, after his defense attorneys filed a number of motions contending there was no physical evidence in the case against Montoya and no witnesses willing to testify he was there.
News reports from the time indicate Montoya was thought to be one of three suspects in Hanrahan's death. Santa Fe police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez wrote in an email Friday the agency would need time to research the case before he could comment on the status of the investigation into Hanrahan's killing.
Baca, a native Santa Fean who has won multiple awards at Spanish Market and from other venues for his striking jewelry, said he's recovering at the home of a relative but hopes to start working on his art again soon.
"I'm getting better day by day," Baca said in a phone interview Friday. "But for a while, I was out. I ended up in the hospital for several days and got tons of staples and stitches, more than 20 of each, and a concussion."
Baca said he has some short-term memory loss as well.
"I'm lucky I'm alive, actually, he said.
Baca said he was sitting on the front porch of his studio on the afternoon of May 7 when he "saw this guy jump the fence from Hotel Santa Fe sprinting right towards me.
"It took me off guard," he said. "I was standing up, and I didn't say a word, and he just knocked me out, one punch."
Baca said he lost consciousness. As he came to, he heard a woman telling the man to get off him. The assailant ran off in the direction of Tomasita's restaurant.
Baca said he later learned the suspect took a weapon that belonged to him, an unloaded .357-caliber handgun which was an "old, old Massachusetts State Police weapon" given to him by a relative.
"Evidentially he went into the studio and grabbed it," Baca said.
According to a police report, a female witness told police she saw a man walking on the street who was "acting suspicious." After following at a safe distance, the witness saw Baca lying on the sidewalk outside his house and saw the suspect exit Baca's vehicle with a gun in his hand. The suspect started hitting Baca with the gun.
The woman said she yelled at the man to stop, and he did, according to the report. She told police the man then crossed the street and jumped over the fence toward Hotel Santa Fe on Paseo de Peralta.
According to the police report, Baca was one of multiple people attacked at three different scenes.
Prior to his encounter with Baca, the report says, Montoya entered the room of a couple staying at the Santa Fe Motel and Inn. He pushed the woman into a table and began punching the man while demanding money.
The couple were able to push him out the door, according to the report.
According to the report, Montoya also accosted a man and woman from Chicago who were checking in to the nearby Hotel Santa Fe.
The man told police he was expecting to be shot but somehow was able to take the gun away from his assailant, who then got up and ran away, according to the report.
When police arrived, Montoya was being held down by two men near the intersection of Manhattan Avenue and Guadalupe Street, the report says.
Craig Allen — the owner of True West Gallery, which has carried Baca's work since 2014 — started a GoFundMe account May 19 to raise money to help Baca in his recovery. The fund had raised $13,740 toward a $15,000 goal as of Friday.
The account says Baca "sustained head trauma with multiple lacerations, severe concussion with prolonged loss of consciousness, and a fracture of his right eye socket," and "will be unable to return to his craft for an as yet undetermined length of time." The request asks patrons of Baca's work to donate funds for medical bills, rent and food.
Allen said he's also organizing an auction featuring art and jewelry donated by other artists to benefit Baca, which he hopes will take place in July.
"He's a friend, and he needs help," Allen said. "That the simplest way to put it."
Baca said Friday he's "a little freaked out" but grateful he wasn't hurt more and eager to get back to his work as soon as he is able.
