Joel Martin, 30, of Albuquerque now faces a total of 14 charges in connection with the incident due to an amended complaint filed Friday by Deputy First Judicial District Attorney Kent Wahlquist. Stephen Jaymes Montano, 22, of Grants, now has three charges: resisting or obstructing an officer, shoplifting and conspiracy for the purpose of committing shoplifting. 

Martin will remain in jail until his release is addressed in District Court as a result of an Aug. 31 dangerousness hearing before Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer. The amended complaint charges him with aggravated assault on a peace officer, aggravated fleeing of a law enforcement officer, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, two counts of receiving stolen property, reckless driving, accident involving damage to vehicle, criminal damage to property, shoplifting, conspiracy for the purpose of committing shoplifting, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and false evidence of title and registration.

Wahlquist requested that Magistrate Judge Pat Casados keep Montano in jail under a $5,000 cash or surety bond but she reduced the amount to $3,000. Montano’s attorney Tyr Loringer argued that the $5,000 amount was set at a time when there were more serious charges against Montano and pointed out that he was innocent until proven guilty of other charges in Cibola County.

Wahlquist told the Court Montano’s pending charges in Cibola County include aggravated fleeing from a law enforcement officer, aggravated driving under the influence and resisting arrest as well as child abuse, presumably from having a child in his vehicle during the alleged incidents. Wahlquist said Montano’s record shows he fails to appear in court when ordered to.

“He has a history of running from officers. The facts haven’t changed and his history hasn’t changed,” he said.

New details on the Aug. 25 incident are available in a statement of probable cause filed in Magistrate Court by Det. Matthew Lyon, including the account given by Cpl. Robert Larsen who was the subject of the aggravated assault.

Larsen’s report said he was notified by LAPD Dispatch of a possible larceny in progress at Smith’s Marketplace. The manager had told Dispatch that several males ran out of the store with a cart full of alcohol and got into a white Nissan Titan pickup. Larsen attempted to follow the suspects east on Trinity Drive but returned to town when he was unable to find them.

Shortly afterwards, Dispatch advised Larsen that two Smith’s employees had followed the truck and that it was parked blacked out on Verde Ridge with several males inside. When Larsen arrived at Verde Ridge he noticed the truck turn on its lights. He engaged his emergency equipment and take down lights in an attempt to conduct a traffic stop. He said the truck turned toward him and proceeded slowly to the driver’s side of his police unit.

“I noticed as the truck approached the front of my unit that the driver’s side window started to roll down. From my experience and training as a law enforcement officer, I perceived this to be a threat. Being that the suspects had fled from Smith’s in such a brazen and unusual manner heightened my suspicion of them being armed. The fact that the truck was not stopping and appeared to be trying to pull next to the driver’s side of my unit with its window down could give the suspects a good position to shoot me and flee the area,” Larsen’s report stated.

Larsen said he immediately exited his unit and drew his sidearm.

“The suspect vehicle proceeded at very close proximity to the side of my unit and myself. I gave a command, ‘Stop right there’, and the suspects’ vehicle accelerated in my direction,” he said.

Larsen said he took the acceleration and proximity to him and his unit to be a “deadly threat”.

“If the suspects’ vehicle were to veer towards me I would be pinned and crushed between my unit and the suspects’ vehicle as it passed by. I responded in the only way I could by using deadly force to stop the suspects’ actions. I fired one round center mass through the driver’s door in an attempt to stop the driver from veering into me,” he said.

At that point the vehicle veered away from Larsen onto the sidewalk, running over several mailboxes before crashing into two cars and a tree. Martin and Montano fled the scene on foot but were apprehended and arrested by Det. Lyon and Cpl. Jemuel Montoya.

When Detective Lyon processed the scene he first found a .45 caliber casing and while looking for evidence between the mailboxes and the suspect’s truck, he found a .380 round. Det. Sgt. James Rodriguez found a handgun magazine with five more .380 rounds and went on to find a Smith & Wesson .380 caliber handgun nearby. Another firearm, a 9 mm Luger pistol was found two days later in long grass between Canyon Road and Trinity Drive and 9 mm shells were found in the suspects’ vehicle.

The pickup was confirmed to have been stolen in Albuquerque. During the investigation license plates from another stolen vehicle and a trailer were recovered as well as a vehicle title. Detectives also found 1.2 grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Preliminary hearings have been set for Oct. 27 for Montano and Nov. 3 for Martin. A third man, alleged to have the first name Enrique, has not yet been apprehended.