Off-duty Torrance County, NM, Chiefs Charged with Attacking Man with Pipes

Nakayla McClelland

Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

(TNS)

A man and woman who work for the Torrance County Fire Department are accused of attacking a mentally ill man with sticks and pipes in Estancia last month.

Hanna Sanchez, 40, and Randy Sanchez, 50, are charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in the March 25 incident. Randy Sanchez faces an additional charge of assault with intent to commit a violent felony.

Hanna Sanchez was the deputy fire chief, while Randy Sanchez was an assistant chief with the department. It is unknown if the two are still employed by TCFD. The department did not return multiple calls for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Hanna Sanchez’s attorney declined to comment on the case.

“The gentleman who he’s alleged to have assaulted has a long history of violent behavior and was diagnosed with schizophrenia,” said Stella Conklin, Randy Sanchez’s attorney. "He has tried to burn his own house down three times.”

“He’s not the innocent victim in the case that I believe he’s been portrayed as,” she said.

A pretrial detention motion filed in 7th Judicial District Court described the man as a “mentally disabled individual.”

“Mr. and Ms. Sanchez continued to beat and threaten the victim while he lay on the ground, helpless, curled in a ball, begging them to stop,” the motion states.

Court records show that Randy and Hanna Sanchez, who have a history of domestic violence allegations, were divorced in 2020.

Estancia police were dispatched March 25 to a home in the 1100 block of Allen after receiving a call that a man was yelling at children as he walked through the neighborhood with a metal bar, according to a criminal complaint filed in Torrance County Magistrate Court.

Officers arrived on scene and did not see the man on anyone’s property. No homes had been broken into, the complaint states.

As police searched for the man, Randy Sanchez approached and said, "You'd better find him before I do, and if I find him, you’d better look away,” according to the complaint.

Officers eventually found the man and told him to stay away from the couple’s property.

Police spoke with Randy Sanchez again, who said that his daughter called him and said that the man was allegedly attempting to break into their house by hitting the side of the property’s fence, the complaint states.

Randy Sanchez told officers that later that evening, the man returned and was throwing things at his house and the neighborhood pets, according to the complaint.

Randy Sanchez told police that he went to the man’s property and hit him twice before telling him to not return to the house and to “Stay the hell out of here,” the complaint states.

He told officers that the man returned to the neighborhood yet again, throwing sticks and rocks at the house, according to the complaint.

Randy and Hanna Sanchez allegedly drove to the man’s property later that evening to confront him, the complaint states. Randy Sanchez told police the man was holding a metal bar and said it made him scared, so he hit the man twice and told him not to come to the house again.

At some point, Hanna Sanchez got out of the vehicle and allegedly hit the man with a piece of wood multiple times while he was “on the floor, defenseless in a ball position,” according to the complaint.

When the wood Hanna Sanchez was using to beat the man broke into two pieces, Randy Sanchez picked up the other piece and began to hit the man as well, the complaint states.

A witness later told police she saw the two hit the man with sticks and pipes while he was on the ground, according to the complaint. She told officers she heard the man beg them to stop multiple times.

The woman caught the end of the altercation on video and officers reported hearing Randy and Hanna Sanchez threaten to kill the man multiple times, the complaint states.

“Stay off Allen Street, you little (expletive) tweak (expletive),” Hanna Sanchez said in the video, according to police.

“You’re going to die, you’re going to die… come around my house again, you’re dead,” Randy Sanchez said, according to the complaint.

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