Serving the High Plains

Tucumcari man jailed on seven criminal counts

A Tucumcari man was jailed on seven criminal counts, including two felonies, after he was accused of trying to choke a woman and threatened to stab her dog and burn down her house.

Nicolas Garcia, 31, was charged Wednesday in magistrate court with aggravated battery by strangulation of a household member, aggravated assault of a household member, battery against a household member, criminal damage to property of a household member of $1,000 or less and three counts of harassment.

The aggravated battery and aggravated assault counts are fourth-degree felonies that can lead up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000. There other charges are misdemeanors.

According to court documents:

• Tucumcari Police Sgt. Shaun Slate and fellow officer Joseph Otero investigated a call the night of Oct. 14 in the 800 block of East Barnes Avenue. A police dispatcher said a man had beaten a woman and left the scene.

• The victim told police she and Garcia were arguing in the presence of another woman and the other woman’s daughter.

• As the victim walked away, Garcia kicked her and slapped her face. She grabbed the hat off Garcia’s head and his hair and told him never to hit her again. Garcia punched her.

“She said Nicolas backed her against a door near the front door of the residence and put his hand around her throat,” Slate wrote in the complaint. “She said he had a grip but could not apply the pressure needed to choke her because he was too short as compared to herself.”

• Slate stated he saw redness in an area where the victim said she was punched and scratches to the left side of her neck.

• The complaint stated Garcia threw a child’s chair at the victim and punched a TV in the living room, putting a hole in the screen.

• The victim called police. “Nicolas made a comment about death by cop” and held his fish-fileting knife to his throat, saying, “I will end it.” She urged him to stop, and he backed her against a wall and held the knife to her throat.

Garcia went to the woman’s dog lying on a toddler bed in the living room. “Nicholas put one hand on the dog to hold it down and used his free hand to stab the bed next to the dog with the filet knife,” the complaint stated. The dog was not injured. The victim later showed Slate the knife still stuck in the mattress.

• Garcia told the woman “it’s gonna get real warm in here tonight,” which she inferred he would try to burn down the house. She said Garcia said he was “going to make sure” the woman, her son (who was not present) and he would die in the fire, and that Garcia had tried to do that before.

• The other woman told officers she saw Garcia kick and punch the victim. She said Garcia tried to stab the dog and made veiled threats about burning the house.

Assistant prosecutor Heidi Adams approved a warrant for Garcia’s arrest, and magistrate judge Timothy O’Quinn found probable cause to detain him. Garcia was booked into the Quay County Detention Center on Wednesday evening.

No defense lawyer was listed for Garcia in online court records.