Woman arraigned in connection with 2022 shooting at Española Lotaburger
Sep. 27—More than a year after 22-year-old Cypress Garcia was fatally shot during a robbery at a Blake's Lotaburger in Española, a woman has been arraigned in federal court on related charges.
Adelene Urquijo, 37, of Española — who faces counts of aiding and abetting attempted robbery and being an "accessory after the fact," according to U.S. District Court records — is the second suspect charged in the incident.
Still, no one has been charged with killing Garcia, a Lotaburger employee, in August 2022.
Ricky Martinez Jr., 32, was named as the primary suspect and was arrested in Santa Fe a day after the shooting on an unrelated federal warrant. He faces federal counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and interfering with commerce by threats and violence. But he has not been charged with murder.
Martinez remains held in federal custody.
Urquijo was arrested Monday and also has been placed in federal custody pending trial.
Martinez and Urquijo both have pleaded not guilty to their federal charges.
A charge of harboring or aiding a felon was brought against Urquijo in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court in 2022. In charging documents, police accused her of acting as a getaway driver for Martinez on the night Garcia was shot.
She was charged in the past with traffic violations and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of tampering with evidence in 2017.
Martinez's arrest last year came months after he was released from federal prison. He accumulated several criminal counts after his release.
A 2019 indictment in U.S. District Court charged Martinez with assault and other counts in a 2017 case on tribal land involving a Native American man. He was convicted of a count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and sentenced to 48 months in prison.
He was released March 15, 2022, court records show, but was later accused of violating the conditions of his release.
A federal arrest warrant was issued in July 2022, and it was executed Aug. 17, 2022, the day after Garcia's death.
An warrant affidavit filed that day in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court says Martinez faces three counts of armed robbery; a count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; a count of shooting at a dwelling or occupied building; and a count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in three separate incidents — one at a Dandy Burger, one at a Shell gas station and one at a Walgreens.
Police said at the time he was considered a suspect in other incidents, but charges had not been filed.
Previously, Martinez was convicted of escaping from the Rio Arriba County jail in July 2018. He was recaptured a short time later, according to court records.
He also has been convicted of counts of burglarizing a car, robbery, aggravated assault on a peace officer and shooting at or from a motor vehicle.
