Man gets over decade in prison for killing 79-year-old man at Colfax County rest area

A woman and her husband were driving to Arizona when they paused at a rest stop off Interstate 25 near Raton. After coming out of the bathroom, the wife noticed their car was gone and her husband was on the ground covered in blood.

The woman applied pressure to his wound, then ran to a truck driver for help and called 911. She told dispatch her husband said, “Hospital,” before dying, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Colfax County Magistrate Court.

On Wednesday, Dorien Ray, 22, was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison for fatally stabbing David Adams, 79, from Colorado, at the Thaxton Rest Area and stealing Adams’ BMW in April 2024.

There are conflicting reports about where Ray had resided. According to New Mexico State Police, he hails from Union City, Georgia, while the complaint filed at the San Miguel County Magistrate Court states he is from McComb, Mississippi.

On Feb. 6, Ray pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed robbery in the case, New Mexico State Police spokesperson Amanda Richards said in a Wednesday news release.

As part of the plea deal, he will serve 15 years in prison with a five-year enhancement and nine years for the armed robbery charge, she said. It is unclear what the enhancement is for.

Ray will also serve 7½ years for additional charges resulting from a car chase involving State Police, Richards said. The charges include aggravated fleeing, aggravated assault on a peace officer, criminal damage to property and possession of a stolen vehicle, she said.

At 7:17 a.m. on April 14, the Colfax County Sheriff’s Office received a call from dispatch, which told them a woman said Adams was stabbed and bleeding at a rest area off I-25, a mile from the Tinaja exit, the affidavit states.

Arriving deputies found Adams with a “large amount of blood on the upper torso,” according to the affidavit. While deputies were at the rest area, they learned a man — later identified as Ray — was driving Adams’ 2016 BMW.

Ray drove the BMW through a Love’s Travel Stop at “a high rate of speed” in Las Vegas before going north on I-25, police said. A State Police officer left the interstate to avoid colliding with the BMW.

The chase ended by milepost 374, near Watrous, when police used a pursuit intervention technique, or PIT maneuver, to stop the vehicle. Ray was arrested by officers wearing a jacket covered with blood, the affidavit states.

Police found two bank cards and cash belonging to Adams’ wife on Ray, who declined to answer questions, the affidavit states.