Santa Fe man charged with fatally stabbing mother at Rancho Viejo home

SANTA FE — A Santa Fe man is facing murder and other charges in connection with the fatal stabbing of his mother at the home they shared in the Rancho Viejo de Santa Fe housing development over the weekend.

Deven Josiah Roybal, 26, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, assault with intent to commit a violent felony and tampering with evidence in the killing of 50-year-old Jennifer Vigil.

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies identified the woman in the kitchen of her Johnson Mesa home on Sunday after Vigil’s sister discovered the remains. The sister initially misidentified them as Roybal’s during a 911 call.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed Tuesday in Santa Fe Magistrate Court, Vigil was in a fetal position and her face was partially covered. The court document noted that the woman’s blue Ford Fusion was missing from the home.

Roybal’s brother, who is under a restraining order to avoid the home, also contacted law enforcement over the weekend, repeating the false report that Roybal had been killed after speaking with Vigil’s sister.

Police ruled out the brother as a suspect after interviewing him about the incident and his whereabouts prior to his mother’s death.

During a search of Vigil’s home, an investigator with the state Office of the Medical Investigator confirmed stab wounds to Vigil’s back, abdomen and forearm, according to the affidavit.

Investigators also found a large kitchen knife with blood and hair on it, as well as a bloody shoe print on a kitchen tile and a fingernail clipping nearby. Two cameras inside the residence had also been disconnected, a sheriff’s office detective noted, and a journal believed to belong to Vigil contained a final handwritten entry dated March 19.

During their investigation, deputies learned that the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office had arrested Roybal on Saturday morning near Farmington, roughly 200 miles northwest of Santa Fe, for DWI and driving with an invalid license in Vigil’s Ford vehicle.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for Roybal’s detainee property box, where they discovered Nike shoes with a zigzag tread pattern they say matches the footprint found in the kitchen where Vigil died.

They also took photos of Roybal’s hands, which had two broken fingernails they believe to be consistent with the clipping discovered in the home.

In a separate case last month, Roybal was charged with battery against a household member and interference with communications related to an altercation with his mother. A competency evaluation was ordered in that case for Roybal, who family members said suffers from schizophrenia and was also a drug user.

John Miller is the Journal’s northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.