Albuquerque Journal
TAOS, NM — A mortally wounded teenager may have waited for emergency responders at a different Ranchos de Taos location than where help was sent early Saturday morning before the teen’s friends finally took him themselves to a hospital, where he died of a stab wound, according to court documents.
Joseph Morgas, 21, was arraigned from jail Monday morning in Taos Magistrate Court on one count of voluntary manslaughter, a third-degree felony, in connection with the death of Adrian Romero-Rascon, 17. Bail was set at $500,000 cash-only and no plea was entered, according to the documents.
According to a statement of probable cause: Taos County Sheriff’s deputy Jose Miera was dispatched at 12:04 a.m. Saturday to the Ranchos Plaza on N.M. 68 after a 911 call.
“The reporting party stated that his friend had just been stabbed and they wanted to meet the ambulance at the Ranchos Plaza Grill,” the document said. Miera arrived at 12:06 a.m. “and waited approximately 9 minutes” but no one arrived.
Miera drove to Holy Cross Hospital and while there “at approximately 12:26" hospital staff told him a stabbing victim had just arrived outside.
“I went outside and saw a white Pontiac and a male individual, later identified as Adrian Romero-Rascon, lying in the back seat unresponsive. Both Mr. Romero-Rascon and Mr. Morgas had a large amount of blood on their clothing,” Miera wrote in the statement.
Hospital staff moved the victim inside and worked on him, but he died a short time later. The deputy questioned Morgas, who said “he and his friend got into a fight and he stabbed his friend outside of his residence,” the statement said. Morgas was arrested at the hospital.
Witness Tabatha Tsoodle, who was at the Alta Vista Trailer Park residence of Morgas in Ranchos de Taos when the stabbing occurred, said “that after waiting at the Ranchos Post Office for some time” they decided to take the victim to the hospital. The post office and the Ranchos Plaza are within a couple hundred yards of each other.
The court documents do not indicate that an ambulance was dispatched, but Taos Central Dispatch Superintendent Shirley Lujan said it was. Lujan said she had not listened to 911 tapes and did not know the details of the apparent discrepancy in locations. “They were all sent out but it was not clear where they were going to meet,” she said.
Sheriff’s Lt. Rick Medina said they are not sure the victim’s group was at the post office. “There were multiple (police) units in the area ... We would have seen them at the post office,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of mix-up there was.” The 911 tapes will be reviewed, Medina said.
Tsoodle said a fight broke out between Morgas and the victim and that Morgas asked Romero-Rascon to leave his home, the court documents said.
After the stabbing the victim started to leave and “as he was leaving she (Tsoodle) saw him fall to the ground.” He was then placed in the car and taken to the post office, according to the court documents. Tsoodle said the knife used to stab Romero-Rascon “was left inside the residence of Joseph Morgas on a bean bag couch,” the probable cause statement said.
A public viewing for Romero-Rascon, who was from Llano Quemado, will be held 3 to 7 p.m. today at the Rivera-Hanlon Funeral Home chapel in Taos. The funeral is 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the chapel.
Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal