Pueblo Pintado man facing 2nd-degree murder charge

LOS ANGELES

A Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico, man has been charged with shooting and killing his 14-year-old nephew who was traveling in the back seat of another vehicle.

Rodgerick Tsosie is now in the custody of the U. S. Marshal’s Office in Albuquerque facing a charge of second-degree murder.

According to court records, Tsosie’s brother, who was identified as A.T., got into an argument with his girlfriend at the residence of Tsosie’s mother in Torreón on the afternoon of May 16. A.T. is the father of the victim in this case.

While the two were arguing, Tsosie was called and asked to come over to his mother’s house to help since he did not drink liquor. But before he got to the house, A.T. and his girlfriend got into their car along with their three children and left.

A person listed as Witness 1 was at the Torreón store in Cuba about 6:30 p.m. when he said he saw a silver sedan with one person inside traveling east on State Road 97 at a high rate of speed. The person was in the west bound lane alongside another vehicle heading east in the right lane.

The two were traveling at the same rate of speed when the witness said he heard a pop-pop sound like two gunshots were fired. The car with the shooter inside continued to travel east while the other vehicle stopped.

Witness one said he saw a woman get out of the front driver’s seat and open the back door. She began screaming, he said.

He said he then saw the silver sedan again, this time going west at a high rate of speed. It went pass the vehicle that had stopped and continued west.

The witness, who was an off-duty emergency medical technician, called 911 and then raced to the car to see if he could do anything to help. When he got there, he saw the woman applying pressure to the victim’s head. He also said he saw blood and brain matter on the victim’s shirt.

The witness said he also saw another young child in the back seat.

He asked the man in the car if he knew who did it and the man responded, “Yeah, my brother, Rodger Tsosie.”

The victim was transported to a local hospital by ambulance but was soon airlifted by helicopter and taken to St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe where he was pronounced dead at 8:31 p.m.

When Navajo Police and Sandoval County sheriff deputies showed up at the store, they found that the window located behind the driver had been shattered. Two children were still sitting in the back seat.

A.T. told them that his brother was the one who shot out the rear window. He also said Tsosie drove at them and rammed the back of his car before the shooting.

He also said his brother had a 9 mm pistol and a 30-30 rifle. His girlfriend told police she felt Tsosie was on a rampage.

Navajo Police then traveled to Pueblo Pintado where Tsosie lived and arrested him. He was made aware that his nephew had been shot and killed. He agreed to waive his rights and answer questions.

He said he had been passing the other car when he heard two pops which he thought sounded like gunshots. During a part of the interview that was held in the Navajo language, Tsosie admitted he had a .22 rifle with him at some point and that he fired a warning shot.

“I guess I’ll take the fall for it,” he said.

When asked if two shots were fired, he said only one shot was fired. When asked again, he stressed there was only one shot and he would take the fall for that.

He also made a statement that he and his brother had been wrestling over the rifle in front of their mother’s house that afternoon and it went off and his nephew was shot.

Family members, however, told police that Tsosie and his brother were not at the house at the same time during the day.

Man arrested for sex with minor

A Santo Domingo Pueblo resident has been arrested on charges of a sexual relationship with a girl on the Navajo Reservation who was under the age of 16.

Jordan Pacheco, 31, is currently being held in custody by the U.S. Marshal’s Office in Albuquerque.

This investigation goes back more than a year. The prosecution is claiming the case in question occurred early in the morning of Jan. 10, 2021, at the home of the minor.

On that day Navajo Police received a phone call from a woman who said that a man believed to be 18 years old was found in her house without her consent. Police responded and talked to a man who said his name was Scott Nacho or Nieto.

Her daughter told police that the man said he was 18 years old, had arrived at her house after midnight and got into the house through her window.

She said the two had been e-mailing each other for some time and Pacheco needed some place to stay since his home was too far to travel that late at night.

Pacheco told police he did not have any sexual contact with the girl. Police arrested him on charges of criminal trespass, burglary and falsification.

Police then found an unknown vehicle outside the house. The car was registered to Pacheco who was born in 1991.

When interviewed, Pacheco agreed to waive his rights. He said he and girl had met about a year before on TikTok and had been phoning each other and talking about sex. He said he had traveled from Albuquerque and had reached the girl’s home about 5 p.m. He said he slept that night in her closet and was discovered the next morning in her bedroom by her sister.

Pacheco was released from tribal jail the next day and the FBI began a long investigation. This included the examination of nine devices found in his possession. They extracted data from six of the devices.

They found images of the girl and also evidence linking Pacheco to other minor girls. They identified five additional girls through an examination of his cell phone.

These cases are still under investigation and Pacheco has so far been charged only with the case on the Navajo Reservation.

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