Man who allegedly abused son, failed to register as sex offender is recaptured by authorities

A man facing charges of child abuse, failing to register as a sex offender and carrying a gun on school grounds was recaptured Tuesday. Authorities had lost track of him after he had been released on his own recognizance.

Jose Reynolds Jr., 37, was arrested by special agents with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office, District Attorney Sam Bregman announced on social media. In a written statement, Bregman touted the work of the special agents, saying they are “relentless when it comes to getting dangerous people off the streets.”

According to booking records, Reynolds is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

He was arrested on warrants issued in January after he missed an in-person office visit and a drug test in late December, at which point the Judicial Supervision and Diversion Program said his whereabouts “are currently unknown.”

Reynolds originally pleaded not guilty in both of his cases. The public defender’s office, which previously represented him and appears to currently be representing him, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reynolds’ original arrest came in August, when a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office detective was called by a New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department investigator to check on Reynolds’ then 6-year-old son, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

The CYFD investigator said there had been three reports that the child was being abused, and that he was being exposed to “illicit substances,” according to the affidavit. The detective met the child at his school, Hawthorne Elementary, and waited for Reynolds.

When Reynolds arrived at the school, riding a yellow bicycle towing a child carrier, the detective arrested him. In a black backpack secured to the child carrier, the detective said he found a loaded and chambered Springfield 9mm handgun.

Reynolds, who said the pistol belonged to his former girlfriend, according to the affidavit, was booked into jail.

The next day, Reynolds’ son was interviewed at All Faiths Children’s Advocacy Center, and according to court records said his father hit him with a carved stick when he was in trouble. The 6-year-old also said his father used drugs at home.

Later that day, according to the affidavit, the sheriff’s office applied for a warrant and performed a search of Reynolds’ apartment near Wyoming and Lomas NE, which had no electricity or running water and was littered with garbage and dirty dishes, one of which was filled with maggots.

In the apartment, authorities found pipes, unused needles, digital scales with white powder on them and a roughly 3-foot carved stick, according to the affidavit.

Reynolds, according to court records, has a lengthy criminal history, including a 2010 conviction by an Eddy County judge of attempted rape, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison.

After allegedly failing to register as a sex offender in mid-February 2023 as part of that case, authorities issued an arrest warrant, on which Reynolds was initially taken into custody at Hawthorne.