Suspect in Corrales homicide arrested

Corrales police have made an arrest in the fatal shooting of a 29-year-old woman in the village last month.

Charles “Chuck” Kauffmann, 55, of Albuquerque, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with an open count of murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence in the Jan. 22 killing of Elizabeth Barela, also of Albuquerque.

Kauffmann was booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center.

Corrales Police Lt. David Wiley said Kauffman was found around noon Wednesday on Eagle Ranch NW, near Paseo del Norte, on Albuquerque’s West Side.

The Albuquerque Police Department was notified and Corrales Police took Kauffmann into custody without incident, Wiley said.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Sandoval County Magistrate Court, on Jan. 22 at 5:15 p.m., officers responded to a report of a woman being shot in the 500 block of Los Arboles Road. Two men directed police to the backyard, where they found Barela on her back with no pulse and a gunshot wound to her upper torso. She died at the scene.

Seven brass bullet casings were found in the porch area, about 10 yards from Barela’s body, the affidavit states.

According to the affidavit, officers heard a man’s voice coming from the house through the open back door. They then found the property owner, an elderly man, who told police that a man — later identified as Kauffmann — was in the room next to his.

Officers called several times for the man to come out, but there was no response. They entered the room and found several firearms, gun magazines and drug paraphernalia. However, no one was in the room, the affidavit states.

According to the affidavit, the man told police Barela started banging on the window and Kauffmann went outside to confront her. Kauffmann then came back inside and said, “I don’t like any woman who talks to me like that, so I shot her.”

The affidavit states that Kauffmann was upset with Barela because she always had the car. Though the man thought Kauffmann wanted to drive it as well, he had never given him permission to drive the car and reported it stolen.

Kauffmann then grabbed his dog and left in a black Kia Rio belonging to the property owner, according to the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, the property owner’s son told police he called his father to check on him when he heard gunshots. His father told him, “Chuck is going crazy and shot Liz.”