Inmate who died at Metropolitan Detention Center was booked on possession charge

On Aug. 16, a New Mexico State Police officer was patrolling Fourth NW, north of Interstate 40, when he spotted a group of unhoused people congregating on a sidewalk. He arrested Ernest Tafoya after finding a few fentanyl pills and methamphetamine on him.

The 62-year-old “began to complain of chest pain” and was taken to a hospital to be medically cleared for jail. Less than 48 hours after being booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center, Tafoya was dead.

The death is being investigated by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and the MDC Office of Professional Standards. MDC spokesperson Candace Hopkins said the facility had not been able to find a relative for Tafoya — who spent the past several years bouncing between shelters and living on the streets.

No cause of death has been released.

From 1981, when he was 18, to 2012, Tafoya was arrested several times for property crimes and on drug-related charges, according to court records. Throughout that time, he had a listed address and didn’t appear to be living on the streets.

In 2022, while listing his address as a Downtown shelter, Tafoya was cited for blocking the sidewalk and criminal trespass in separate cases. Before he was arrested Aug. 16, the State Police officer said he saw homeless people on the sidewalk with “numerous belongings.”

“These individuals were in violation of Albuquerque city ordinance articles not to obstruct sidewalks,” according to the complaint. A stop and search of Tafoya led to his arrest.

Hopkins said Tafoya was booked into the jail around 7 a.m. Around 9 p.m. the next day, he “experienced a medical emergency.” She said MDC staff and University of New Mexico Hospital staff stabilized him before he was placed in a medical unit. Hopkins said minutes later, Tafoya had another medical emergency and an ambulance came to MDC to assist in life-saving measures. By 10:26 p.m., Tafoya was pronounced dead.

Tafoya was the sixth MDC inmate to die at the facility or die after falling ill at the facility this year. Since 2020, MDC has had 38 inmates die, many of them while detoxing.

Attorney Kate Loewe, who represents MDC inmates under a class-action settlement agreement, said she heard Tafoya had been withdrawing in his cell.

“He was asking for help, for medical attention, throughout the day. Telling staff he was not OK. But that help didn’t come until it was too late,” she said.

Loewe said UNMH’s Rapid Response team at the jail “is great at responding to emergencies,” but that the facility needs to be sure people get the care they need “so there are fewer emergencies.”

“We need to do better than this as a community,” she said.