Ep. 12: An Even Tempered Man

Hello and welcome to Crime on the Clarkfork, the true crime podcast that only covers cases that happened in areas with populations of 15,000 or less. On this week's episode, I am telling you about the mass murder of seven people in Chimayo, NM.

Transcript

Hi and welcome back to Crime on the Clarkfork, the true crime podcast where I tell you about big crimes that happen in small places with each case having occurred in areas with populations of 15,000 or less. My name is Mackenzie Spence and I am your host. If this is your first time here, welcome! If you are a seasoned listener, I am glad you are back for another episode! 

This episode, we are heading back to the United States. I want to cover cases in states where I haven’t had a listener from yet, so we are going to New Mexico for this case.

The sources for this episode are: Census.gov, Justia, Murderpedia, Deseret News, Rio Grande Sun, Serial Killer Calendar, KOAT 7, KRQE News, The Washington Post, and Newspapers.com

Chimayo, NM. 1991. Population: 2,789.

On January 26th, 1991, Ricky Abeyta went on a killing spree and murdered 7 people. His estranged girlfriend, Ignacita Vasquez Sandoval, her sister, Celina, Ignacita’s daughter, Maryellen, Maryellen’s boyfriend, Macario Gonzalez, Maryellen and Macario’s 6-month-old son, and 2 police officers, 30 year old Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Martinez and 35 year old State Police Sergeant Glen Huber. He also shot Ignacita’s son, Eloy, who was not killed by the gunshot wound.

Chimayo is a small town in North-Central New Mexico, approximately an hour north of Albuquerque. It is located in the Sangre de Cristo foothills and known for the El Santuario de Chimayo Church, which is visited by thousands of faithful catholics each year to pray and be healed. It is said that the dirt from a hole in the floor of the church has miraculous healing and curing powers. The town is also known for its red chili peppers that the local farmers grow.

Ignacita and Abeyta had lived with each other for approximately 2 years. Ignacita’s children, 14 year old Eloy and 19 year old Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen’s boyfriend, 21 year old Macario, and their 6-month old son, Justin, and Ignacita’s 16 year old sister, Celina all lived in the residence with Ignacita and Abeyta. On Wednesday, January 23rd, Ignacita decided that it was time she left Abeyta and moved out of the house after the two got into a fight and Abeyta shot at her and her car three times. In the past, Ignacita and Abeyta had split three separate times, each time moving out the trailer house to move back in on a later date when the two got back together.

Abeyta was known as a skilled hunter by his neighbors and worked as a welder. Throughout his life, he was no stranger to the law as he was arrested multiple times over the course of his life, but never convicted for any of the crimes. Some charges included aggravated assault, larceny, and harassment by telephone. Even so, his family members hold steady that he was an even tempered man who was rather quiet. 

On the morning of January 26th, 1991, Abeyta left his home and locked the house and the gate behind him. He asserts that when Ignacita moved out in the past, she not only took her possessions, but also most of his as well. Since he expected she would do the same thing when she was leaving this time, he made sure to lock up the house on his way out to work in Santa Fe. 

After they were sure that Abeyta would be gone, Ignacita, Mary Ellen, Celina, Macario, Cheryl, Ignacita’s 25 year old sister and her two young children, Roland and Nicky, arrived at the residence to remove Ignacita and her family’s possessions. A man named Peter Martinez was also there helping the family load everything onto the rented Uhaul truck as Ignacita had met him that morning in Chimayo and hired him to help out. On top of the people helping with the move, Ignacita had gone to the police for police protection while she moved because she was afraid that if Abeyta arrived while they were moving out, he would become violent. Jerry Martinez, the Rio Arriba County Deputy Sheriff was at the property to supervise Ignacita and her family while they packed. The family arrived around noon that Saturday and Martinez was already there because he had shown up earlier to serve a restraining order for Ignacita against Abeyta. When Martinez realized that Abeyta was not at his home, he went next door to deliver the order to his mother, but Mrs. Abeyta declined taking the restraining order because she said that it was not prepared correctly.

Once Ignacita and her moving party arrived, Martinez gave them the go-ahead to cut the gate with wire cutters since Abeyta had locked it that morning. Once they were on the property, Martinez told them they were okay to enter the residence and begin packing. A State Police Officer, Glen Huber also stopped by the residence to assist in supervising the move, but after seeing that everything was under control, he left the scene. When the family began packing up Ignacita’s things in the U Haul, Mrs Abeyta and Dora, Abeyta’s sister, stood by the gate to keep her from taking Abeyta’s property. When Martinez noticed this, he walked over to the conflict and handed the restraining order to Dora and Mrs. Abeyta, assuring them that it was valid. With that, the family continued to pack and Dora and Mrs. Abeyta waited outside and at one point, grabbed a quilt that had fallen on the ground that they stated belonged to Abeyta. Unfortunately, Martinez had to leave shortly after the packing began to investigate a tip that he had received on a stolen car nearby. 

At first, things were going seamlessly, even without the police supervision of the property while they were packing, but not too much later, Abeyta rapidly arrived at the residence with a rifle and a revolver and began to get into an altercation with Eloy, who was outside loading the U Haul with Macario. Eloy and Macario were beginning to get out of the U Haul when they noticed Abeyta quickly approaching the residence carrying his rifle and revolver and then opened fire on the two while yelling “!Con esto pagan!” which means “with this I pay you back”. Abeyta then shot Elroy through the shoulder and then shot Macario through the back while he was standing in the rear of the U Haul. When the family inside heard the shots, Mary Ellen screamed, grabbed her 6-month old son, Justin, and ran outside to flee the scene. While they were running away, Abeyta shot them both in the back of the head and killed them. Although, it isn’t clear as to if they were killed by the same or different bullets. While Abeyta states that he didn’t shoot Mary Ellen and Justin, the only two people who could have had a weapon when they were killed were Abeyta and Eloy. Abeyta claimed that Eloy had a gun and had fired at him, but the weapon was never presented into evidence nor were there any shell casings from a weapon other than those from Abeyta’s firearms or police officers’ guns. Celina and Nikki managed to escape any injury by fleeing out of a window when they heard the initial shots.

After killing Mary Ellen, Justin, and Macario, and wounding Elroy, Abeyta entered the house and yelled at Ignacita, Cheryl, and Celina that they were going to pay. Cheryl was kneeling on the kitchen floor when Abeyta shot her in the back of the head. He then went on to kill Ignacita. First hitting her finger and then fatally shooting her in the face. The autopsy report also stated that Ignacita seemed to have been hit twice in the back of the head with a blunt object, like the butt of a gun. After shooting Cheryl and Ignacita, Abeyta exited the house and shot Elroy again after noticing he was still alive. This time, Elory was hit in the groin, but still didn’t die. 

After hearing the gunshots, Martinez arrived back at the residence. As Abeyta was leaving the house, he encountered Martinez and shot him twice in the head at close range while he stood by his parole car. After hearing about the shooting, Huber returned to the scene as well. By the time he arrived, Abeyta had already made it to his mother’s house up the hill. Huber got out of his patrol car and grabbed his radio, but Abeyta shot him in the head while he still had one foot in the car from 200 yards away. After shooting and killing Huber, he fled into the hills behind his mother’s home. When backup arrived, Eloy ran to the first officer that arrived at the scene, Chris Valdez, who grabbed a sleeping bag that he had in his vehicle to wrap him up as he was freezing and had a gunshot wound to the chest. After helping Eloy, Valdez began yelling to Huber, asking him where to go and if Abeyta was still in the house. This is when Eloy told the officer that Martinez and Huber had been shot. 

Glen Huber was born in Boulder, CO and grew up in both Roswell and Santa Fe, NM. He graduated from Santa Fe HS in 1973 and then from the New Mexico Military Institute in 1975. He then went on to New Mexico State University, where he graduated in 1977. Huber served in the US Army and was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant. Deciding to continue his public service, he took a job with the New Mexico state police in 1981 and then resigned in 1986 to serve as the town marshall of Pecos, NM. After he was done serving as town marshall, he returned to police work in 1988 for the New Mexico state police. He is the father of two daughters and two stepdaughters. At the time of his death, he was a senior patrolman. He was buried at the National Cemetery in Santa Fe with full military and police honors and his funeral procession was 10 miles long. In 2018, the Espanola State Police Office was dedicated to Huber, bearing his name. 

Jerry Martinez was born in Chimayo, NM and graduated from Espanola HS. He then went on to study criminology at both San Francisco Community College and the College of Santa Fe. He was a paratrooper in the US Army and planned to run for the Rio Arriba County Sheriff in 1992. He is the father of two children, Nick and Destiny who were only 5 years old and 2 weeks old when he was murdered. In 2015, Martinez was honored by the sheriff’s department. They retired his badge and dedicated the sheriff’s office building in his honor. A sticker with Martinez’s name and badge was also placed on the left side of all of the department’s vehicles. 

Not long after, around 30 officers surrounded the house, believing that Abeyta was still inside, but after several hours and no sign of Abeyta in the residence, the officers stormed the house, which is when they found the bodies of Cheryl and Ignacita. This led to a massive manhunt of the wooded area near the homes, both on foot and by helicopter, but to no avail. During the hunt, they found Abeyta’s truck abandoned near Chimayo. As stated earlier, Abeyta was known as a great hunter. He was also known as an incredible sharp shooter, with people in town stating that he could knock the bell off a goat from 10 yards. As the manhunt progressed, officers made it to a bluff that overlooked the scene where they found 6 cigarette butts that matched the brand that Abeyta was known to smoke. It was as if he was sitting there, watching the police swarm his home.

To the surprise of everyone following the case, Abeyta arrived at the police station in Albuquerque just 24 hours after the massacre. He was accompanied by his cousin, Manuel Sanchez, who claims that Abeyta arrived at his home in Bernalillo, NM, which is a town near Albuquerque, and told him that he wanted to surrender and turn himself in. He told the officers who took him into custody that he feared if he continued to flee, he wouldn’t be taken alive by police if he were to be found. He then requested that he not be hurt and not be handcuffed. The officer assured him that he was not going to hurt him, but was absolutely going to handcuff him.

Now, Abeyta’s recount of the day is different from what I have said thus far and was found by the investigators. Here I will tell you what he testified happened: 

Abeyta returned in the late afternoon after working all day in Santa Fe. He drove home on a back road and when he got home, he parked at his mother’s house up the hill, so he didn’t notice that Ignacita was packing her things into the U Haul. He took paint that he had purchased earlier in the day down the hill to his garage which is when he noticed the moving operation that was occurring. After he brought the paint to the garage, he grabbed his rifle and revolver that he also had in the garage in order to bring them to his mom’s house because he was afraid that Ignacita would steal them while packing up everything in the garage. 

He put the revolver in his back waistband and grabbed the rifle by the sling. While he was on his way to his mother’s house, he noticed that some of his clothes were being brought to the U Haul, so he went to the house to tell them to not take his things. When he got to the bottom of the U Haul steps, Eloy attacked him with a knife and a 170. During the fight, Abeyta cut his hand twice, but managed to get Eloy to drop the knife. During the scuffle, Macario was in the back of the U Haul and when Abeyta looked in, he noticed more of his belongings packed up. He asked Macario what was going on to which Macario said that he didn’t know, but not to try and stop them because if he did, he wouldn’t see tomorrow. Abeyta then noticed that Eloy had a gun that had been retrieved from the cab of the U Haul and when he noticed, he lunged to the side and shot his gun, not knowing if it hit anything or not. He then placed another round into his rifle and put it on the porch railing. While he was doing this, he got hit in the back of the head which caused him to fall and the rifle to fall off the railing. Abeyta then grabbed the gun, which caused the gun to discharge. He continued to fumble with the gun, which caused it to reload with another round in the chamber. While this happened, Abeyta felt someone grab the revolver that he had in his back waistband, which caused him to turn around to see who it was that hit him and was then attempting to take his gun. As he was turning, he noticed someone with a baby. He was hit in the head again which caused the rifle to discharge while falling from his hands and landed at the bottom of the steps where Abeyta left it. 

He finally got up from the group and walked into the house to see who had hit him. This is when he ran into Cheryl who was in the kitchen. He sensed that something was wrong, so he grabbed Cheryl and spun her around so she was in front of him like a human shield. Cheryl was yelling at Abeyta to stop. This is when he noticed that Ignacita had his revolver pointed at them. Cheryl told Ignacita to stop and covered her face, bending over, which caused both her and Abeyta to fall to the ground. Ignacita fired the revolver, attempting to hit Abeyta, but hit Cheryl instead. Abeyta then began struggling with Ignacita over the gun. During the fight, Ignacita fired the gun again, but her finger was in the way, which caused her to shoot off the tip of her pinky finger. Ignacita then made a run for the door with the gun, but Abeyta caught up to her. Ignacita bent down and pointed the gun at Abeyta, but he hit the barrel which caused it to point back towards her and during this, the gun discharged and shot her in the face. He then fled the house and shot Eloy a second time. Based on his story, Abeyta claimed imperfect self-defense. 

Based on the claim, the court argued that Abeyta could not claim imperfect self defense for the killing of Deputy Martinez or Office Huber as the evidence indicated that Abeyta aimed at and shot both men, but Abeyta continued to argue imperfect self defense in this case as well. 

With both accounts of what happened presented, it was obvious that Ignacita was legally removing her possessions from Abeyta’s house with the help of her family. While Abeyta was not aware that Ignacita had obtained a restraining order against him, since it was delivered to his mother that morning, he was aware that Ignacita had the right to remove her things. He also wasn’t aware that she had gained access to his property with the help and authority of the deputy sheriff. 

When Abeyta went to trial, he requested that the jury would be instructed on voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of Macario, Cheryl, and Mary Ellen as he argued that Macario was a bystander that was killed during his scuffle with Eloy and that Cheryl and Mary Ellen were killed because he was defending his property. The jury rejected the theory of imperfect self defense and convicted him of first degree murder in Cheryl and Mary Ellen’s death and second degree murder in Macario’s death. Abeyta was acquitted of two counts of attempted murder against Eloy. This caused Abeyta to argue that the need for self-defense that was used against Eloy was then transferred to Macario since they were working together and that Macario was verbally threatening him, which was adequate provocation for self defense. The court declined the idea that Macario’s verbal threat was enough to kill him in self defense. The jury deliberated on Abeyta’s case for 11 days and he was ultimately sentenced to 147 years in prison which he is still serving at the state prison in Amarillo, TX. 

And that is the end of this case. As always, please give me 5-stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as well as a review on Apple Podcasts. I am always looking for cases to cover, so if you have a case suggestion, please visit the link in the show’s instagram page, @CrimeontheClarkfork. I also post pictures from the cases I cover on my instagram page, so go give that a quick follow and let me know what your thoughts are on the case in the comments on instagram. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will catch you next time with more big crime in small places.