Man accused in 2020 rape arrested in Texas, returned to New Mexico

LAS CRUCES — A man who no-showed for his 2020 arraignment on rape charges was arrested Friday in Huntsville, Texas, and is in custody at the Doña Ana County Detention Center, according to a booking report.

Alonso Trinidad Gil, 32, was charged by a grand jury five years ago with two counts of criminal sexual penetration in the third degree and a misdemeanor charge of criminal sexual contact, in addition to receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle and a fourth-degree felony charge of tampering with evidence for allegedly changing his clothes to elude arrest.

Additionally, Gil is charged with possession of methamphetamine, evading arrest and charges stemming from allegations that he crashed while fleeing deputies.

Charging documents state the victim was an adult woman who told a Doña Ana County detective that on the afternoon of Feb. 9, 2020, she went out for frozen yogurt with a Las Cruces friend along with Gil, who was visiting from out of town. She said they visited other friends together before leaving with Gil, who had promised to take her home. Instead, she reported, he assaulted her inside the vehicle and forced her to have sexual intercourse.

After dropping off the woman, Gil reunited with a friend when they were confronted by Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office deputies in the colonia of Doña Ana, north of Las Cruces. Gil allegedly fled in the red pickup truck he had been driving, with a prominent decal in front that read, “In God we trust.” Gil later told deputies he had borrowed the vehicle, but the vehicle was reported stolen, according to a police statement.

Deputies stated that Gil led them on a pursuit nearly nine miles into Las Cruces, where he was eventually apprehended.

Gil gave a statement, according to deputies, alleging that he had believed the sex was consensual and that he had fled because he assumed deputies were executing an arrest warrant on unrelated charges, as well as the presence of drugs in his vehicle.

The grand jury charged Gil with reckless driving during the police pursuit, crashing into another vehicle and leaving the scene without giving notice of the accident. The indictment and other court records do not indicate whether anyone was injured in the crash. Police statements indicate Gil was arrested on a residential street close to Interstate 25.

The incident and the criminal case occurred during the opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the subsequent public health emergency declaration led to delays in the proceedings. Gil’s arraignment was postponed twice before he failed to appear for a court date in June 2020, court records show.

Days after that hearing, Texas court records indicate Gil was arrested by Odessa police, was booked into the Ector County Detention Center as a fugitive from justice on the Doña Ana County charges and then transferred to another agency, but it was not immediately clear why the case did not proceed between then and his arrest in Huntsville on Friday. Texas records show Gil was booked at the Ector County facility again in 2022 and 2023 on charges of criminal trespassing and possession of controlled substances.

Since 2020, the only proceedings on Gil’s charges in Las Cruces have been changes in legal counsel. As of Monday, no court hearing had yet been scheduled.