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Albuquerque man behind bars after allegedly beating father to death
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A man is behind bars in the fatal beating of his father during an argument on Saturday in Northeast Albuquerque.
Clayton Garcia, 29, is charged with an open count of murder in the death of 74-year-old Jorge Garcia. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Clayton Garcia was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Saturday afternoon, and police were notified that his father died in the hospital on Sunday.
Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain Clayton Garcia until trial, saying he beat his father over an argument about “being loud.”
“Someone who would beat a man to death over something seemingly so trivial is dangerous to anyone who angers him,” according to the motion.
Police responded around 3:15 a.m. to a disturbance in the 800 block of Madeira NE, near Lomas and San Mateo, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Officers found Clayton Garcia hosing off his feet and his father badly beaten in the driveway.
Police said Jorge Garcia was taken to a hospital in critical condition and Clayton Garcia told them he “kicked his father’s (expletive).” Clayton Garcia told police his father became angry after he came home “late from a party and he was being loud.”
Clayton Garcia told police his father yelled at him and then punched him while he sat in the car outside, according to the complaint. He said he then got out of the car and kicked his father, but “didn’t remember how many times.”
Police said Clayton Garcia told them “he needed his father to die because dying in a fight was the only way for him to get to ‘Valhalla,’” a version of the afterlife in Norse mythology. Clayton Garcia told police he then grabbed his father’s favorite mug and set it next to him because his father “would want this cup with him “in Valhalla.
Clayton Garcia told police his father had been trying to fight him for years and wanting to die in a fight so Jorge Garcia could go to Valhalla. But the son never wanted to, according to the complaint.
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Police found a travel mug with hieroglyphic symbols etched on it near where Jorge Garcia’s body was found.
