Judge rejects request to toss confessions in three cold-case killings

Paul Apodaca startled a pair of University of New Mexico police officers in 2021 by blurting out that he had murdered three women decades earlier.

A state District Court judge has now rejected an argument made by Apodaca’s attorneys that his confessions were obtained illegally and should be tossed from the criminal cases he now faces.

Apodaca, 55, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of 18-year-old Kaitlyn Arquette and 13-year-old Stella Gonzales and the stabbing death of 21-year-old Althea Oakeley. The killings occurred from 1988 to 1989.

Apodaca’s attorneys argued in court filings that UNM officers failed to inform him of his constitutional rights, including his right to remain silent, after he casually admitted to the killings while riding in a police car.

But District Judge Cindy Leos rejected the argument, noting that Miranda warnings informing suspects of their constitutional rights are intended to prevent people from making incriminating statements under questioning.

In this case, Apodaca repeatedly admitted to killing three women without prompting from officers, Leos wrote.

“It was notable to the Court in listening to the audio that (Apodaca) not only volunteered this information but also that (UNM officer Eric) Peer in response was at no point interrogating (Apodaca),” Leos wrote after hearing police recordings of the interviews.

The statements Apodaca made to officers the day of his arrest are crucial to the criminal cases against him, his attorneys said in their motion to suppress the statements.

Attorneys Nicholas Hart and Mark Earnest argued that the officers should have informed Apodaca of his constitutional rights after he said he killed Oakeley and Arquette.

“Mr. Apodaca was never a suspect or person of interest in either of the cases during more than 30 years of law enforcement investigation,” the attorneys argued in the July 25 motion. “Instead, those charges are based solely on Mr. Apodaca’s statements to law enforcement.”

Hart and Earnest did not immediately respond Wednesday to phone messages seeking comment.

Initial confession

Apodaca was found by a UNM security guard in July 2021 sitting outside the UNM Children’s Hospital, Leos wrote in her order. When the guard asked Apodaca if he was OK, “Apodaca requested police as he wanted to confess to three murders.”

Apodaca was injured, intoxicated and wearing a GPS ankle monitor at the time. The homeless man also had an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to stay at the Westside Shelter as directed by his probation officer.

Two UNM police officers were dispatched to arrest him. Once Apodaca was in the back seat of a police car, officer Peer asked him if the air conditioning was on in the back seat of the vehicle.

“I don’t deserve it,” Apodaca replied. When the officer asked him why not, Apodaca said, “‘Cause of all the things I’ve done.” Asked for more detail, Apodaca said, “I murdered Althea Oakeley.”

Oakeley, a 21-year-old UNM student from Arroyo Hondo, was fatally stabbed near Central New Mexico Community College as she walked home from a party on June 22, 1988.

Apodaca then told the UNM officers that he had also killed Kaitlyn Arquette.

Arquette was driving home from a friend’s house in July 1989 when she was shot in the head on Lomas NE near Arno, just east of Downtown. Her car crashed into a light pole. Arquette died the following day.

Arquette’s mother, Lois Duncan, author of the bestselling novel “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” struggled to identify her daughter’s killer until her death in 2016. The case attracted national attention after Duncan wrote about the case in a nonfiction book, “Who Killed My Daughter?”

Finally, Apodaca told the two officers that he had killed “another girl that was crossing the bridge. I don’t remember her name.”

Prosecutors allege that girl was Stella Gonzales, who was walking home with a friend on Central Avenue near the Rio Grande when she was shot in the back of the head on Sept. 9, 1988. She died two days later.

Apodaca is scheduled for trial Feb. 19 in Gonzales’ killing. No trials are scheduled in the other cases.

Apodaca told the officers the three of the killings occurred from 1988 to 1989.

Other arguments

The judge also rejected a defense argument that an Albuquerque Police Department detective illegally questioned Apodaca in a UNM holding cell “despite recognizing that Mr. Apodaca did not seem to understand the situation that he needed mental health treatment.”

Defense attorneys also argued that Apodaca’s statement to the APD detective relied on facts obtained in his initial confession to the UNM officers. Because the initial confession was obtained illegally, Apodaca’s subsequent statements to the APD detective also should be tossed, they argued.

Leos wrote in her order that although Apodaca “did appear tired and despondent throughout the interrogation, he was lucid, his memory was clear and he was responsive to the questions asked.”

Leos also wrote that APD detective Jodi Gonterman didn’t realize Apodaca was going to confess to the three cold-case killings when she spoke with him in a UNM holding cell.

“Detective Gonterman arrived at UNM Police Station believing she was going to speak with someone who had information on cold case murders,” Leos wrote. Apodaca “then confesses to killing three women.”

Gonterman then interrupted Apodaca, explained that she didn’t know he planned to confess to the killings, and read him his constitutional rights, Leos wrote. Apodaca then agreed to speak with the detective.

“First, (Apodaca) actively sought out law enforcement in order to confess to the crimes,” Leos wrote. “Second, on two occasions during this encounter, (Apodaca) volunteered — without any questioning — that he murdered three women.”