Saturday, January 17, 2004

Police: Woman shot, husband kills self

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Tomé Two days after Katrina Marquez-Garcia was shot in the face by her estranged husband, police are saying she is doing better although she is still in critical but stable condition.

The 31-year-old Tomé woman is recovering in an Albuquerque hospital from a single gunshot wound. Police say that, after Miguel Garcia, 30, shot his wife Wednesday morning, he turned the gun on himself.

Valencia County Undersheriff William Martinez said that the shooting ended the couple's 13-year history of domestic violence. He said the couple were in the process of ending their marriage.

Sheriff's deputies received a call on Wednesday morning to respond to a house at 25 La Entrada in Tomé regarding a domestic disturbance. While en route to the house, the deputy received word that gunshots had been fired and at least one person was injured, Martinez said.

"Our deputies arrived to find a woman, who was later identified as Katrina Marquez-Garcia, lying in the backyard with a gunshot wound to the head. She was conscious and alert.

"We also found a male subject, later identified as Miguel Garcia, suffering from what we believe was a self-inflicted gunshot would to the head," Martinez said. "He was pronounced dead at the scene."

Marquez-Garcia was immediately airlifted by a Lifeguard helicopter to the University of New Mexico Hospital where she underwent surgery for her injuries. Martinez said the bullet entered the victim's right cheek and traveled diagonally across her face and then exited through her left temple.

"She is extremely lucky to be alive," Martinez said of the victim. "The domestic issues that they were having escalated to a point where this tragedy happened."

According to police reports, detectives have been able to determine that Garcia showed up at his estranged wife's home Wednesday morning and began to argue about their relationship. Martinez said the argument turned violent and that's when Garcia shot his wife.

"We think that he shot her on the back steps, when she was attempting to flee the home," he said. "We felt he believed that he had killed her. He then re-entered the home and took his own life by putting a gun to his head and then firing."

Martinez said the couple's three boys, who were at school at the time of the shooting, are staying with Marquez-Garcia's relatives until she is released from the hospital.

Court records show that Garcia had been served with a temporary restraining order on Dec. 15 to stay 100 feet away from his wife after she reported that she had received several phone calls from him, allegedly threatening her life. He was served with the paperwork while he was being held at the Valencia County Adult Detention Center on unrelated charges, Martinez said.

A permanent restraining order was issued against Garcia on Dec. 30 by a special domestic violence commissioner, the undersheriff said. Because Garcia had failed to show up for the hearing, the commissioner ordered that he stay 250 feet away from his wife.

Garcia, who was being held on charges that he shot a man in the head two years ago, had been released from jail last month after his family posted a $50,000 property bond. He was indicted on one count of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Valencia County detectives arrested Garcia in October on a warrant for the alleged attempted murder of El Cerro Mission resident Artemio Enriquez in June 2002.

According to police reports, Enriquez was shot once in the head after trying to stop a fight between two sets of brothers at a baptismal party in Monterey Park. Garcia is alleged to have been wielding a gun and pistol-whipping two men before Enriquez tried to stop the fight and was shot.

Garcia had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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