Jan. 8—A Rio Chiquito man has been charged with murder in a recent killing in Chimayó — marking at least three homicides in the small Española Valley community in 2024.
Raymond Romero, 34, faces a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 40-year-old Jonathan Cordova, New Mexico State Police spokesperson Wilson Silver confirmed Wednesday.
Details about the Dec. 29 slaying were not yet available Wednesday afternoon, but state police filed the charge against Romero in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court, online records show. Court records in the case were sealed by an order from Rio Arriba County Magistrate Alexandra Naranjo.
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Romero was arrested and booked into the Santa Fe County jail Wednesday afternoon, according to an inmate database.
He had been arrested in Española the night of the killing on an unrelated count of drug possession, and officers noted in court records he was suspected of being involved in a homicide earlier that day. Officers pulled Romero over in a McDonald’s parking lot in Española, records state, and police said they found cocaine in his pocket.
Police wrote they performed a “high-risk stop” on Romero, who was driving a black Nissan Rogue. The car was “the suspected vehicle in a homicide in Chimayó, NM earlier in the day,” the affidavit states.
Romero was released from jail several days later, a court order shows.
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A Facebook page that appears to belong to Romero shows he has a wife and children and attended Pojoaque Valley High School.
An obituary published by DeVargas Funeral Home in Española said Cordova “was heartlessly taken from this world but he is now triumphant in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The memorial states Cordova was a journeyman and carpenter with a fiancée who loved fishing and hunting, calling him “a respectful, loving, caring and very kind man who was taken from this world too soon.”
Family members of Cordova or Romero could not be reached.
The homicide is at least the third killing in 2024 in the community east of Española of about 3,000 people. Chimayó straddles Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties.
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State police on Monday filed charges against another man — including second-degree murder — in a May killing in the community. And in August, police said a man stabbed and killed his ex-girlfriend in Chimayó before setting her house on fire.
Another man was shot and killed in Cuartelez, between Chimayó and Española, in August. Police initially charged a man with murder in that shooting, but the charges were downgraded after witnesses said the man who was killed had a gun as well.
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