Man arrested in fatal stabbing in Ohkay Owingeh; suspect in Taos County double homicide, sheriff says

A northern New Mexico man is accused of gunning down two women in a mobile home near Taos and fatally stabbing a man outside Española.

On Monday, Cesar Garcia, 26, of Taos, was charged with an open count of murder and attempting to steal a vehicle in the fatal stabbing of Anthony Velasquez, 32, at a travel center in Rio Arriba County.

Garcia is also considered a suspect in the shooting deaths of Ashley Casias, 34, and Anastasia “Stacy” Romo, 39, both of Taos, at a trailer park in El Prado, Taos County Sheriff Steve Miera said in a news release. Garcia is being held at the Rio Arriba County Detention Center.

On Monday evening, the Taos County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call for a welfare check at the Valencia Trailer Park. When deputies arrived, they found Casias and Romo inside a mobile home with multiple gunshot wounds, Miera said in the release.

Deputies were later contacted by the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office about Garcia, who was believed to be in possession of a vehicle belonging to one of the women in Española, he said.

“This remains an active investigation,” Miera said.

Hours earlier, at about 2 p.m., the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of a stabbing at a travel center in Ohkay Owingeh. During the call, deputies learned of a man running across N.M. 68, according to the criminal complaint filed at Rio Arriba Magistrate Court.

When deputies arrived at the travel center, they found Velasquez unconscious and not breathing. After the deputy removed Velasquez’s shirt, they found a stab wound in the chest, the complaint states. He was pronounced dead minutes later.

Velasquez’s mother told deputies she was taking clothes to a laundromat when she saw “something like somebody shoving,” according to the complaint. Two witnesses told deputies they saw two men arguing when a man in a black shirt soaked in blood — later identified as Garcia — run toward the laundromat then head west of N.M. 68, deputies said.

Surveillance footage showed Garcia talking to Velasquez in the backseat of the sedan, according to the complaint. About five minutes later, Velasquez got out hastily, tripped over a curb and fell, deputies said. “As he gets back up, Cesar stabs towards him multiple times as Anthony is trying to flee,” according to the complaint.

Garcia sat in the sedan for a couple of minutes before getting out and running onto N.M. 68, deputies said.

Dispatch told deputies a man matching Garcia’s description ran through a field across the highway, the complaint states. They then found and arrested Garcia near a home less than a mile away with a bloody knife in his pocket, deputies said. Garcia refused to talk to deputies.