Police charge man in University of New Mexico Hospital carjackings
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Feb. 2 2019 — Police say that although 43-year-old Ivan Archuleta tried to carjack two people at the University of New Mexico Hospital late Monday morning, he failed to make it out of the parking lot with either vehicle.
Instead, he was arrested nearby by university police shortly afterward.
Archuleta, of Ohkay Owingeh, was booked into the county jail. He is charged with robbery and attempt to commit a robbery.
Prosecutors have filed a motion asking for him to be held in jail until his trial.
UNM police were called to the parking lot at Camino de Salud and Yale NE about an attempted carjacking, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
When they arrived, they talked with Sky Romero, who said a man – later identified as Archuleta – approached him shortly before noon and asked him for a cigarette lighter.
Romero got into his car when Archuleta opened the door and “stuck a blunt object in his ribs,” demanding his car keys and money, an officer wrote in the complaint.
“Romero jumped out of his vehicle and pushed Archuleta out of the way,” then went inside UNMH and reported the incident to security, which called UNM police.
UNM police then learned of another attempted carjacking.
Maggie Sorrell told the Journal she was delivering food from her restaurant to the hospital Monday. She said she was stopped in the fire lane in front of the hospital when Archuleta and a woman approached. She said when she got out of her car to deliver the meal, the pair jumped inside.
“I still had my keys on me so I locked them in my car,” Sorrell said. “Nothing happened to me.”
She said the two realized they couldn’t steal the car so they got out and walked casually away.
Lt. Trace Peck, a UNMPD spokesman, said officers found Archuleta near a roundabout west of the parking lot on the hospital property. He was with 27-year-old Amanda Garcia, who was also arrested and is charged with drug possession.
Police officers found several syringes in her purse – one of which was loaded with heroin. They also found Narcan, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, according to another criminal complaint filed in Metro Court.
UNMPD recently announced that on-campus thefts of vehicles had plummeted 41 percent in 2018 compared with 2017. However, the tally does not include thefts reported to UNM Hospital security or to the Albuquerque Police Department.
In recent years, UNM had the highest number of auto thefts and attempted auto thefts of any university in the country.
Peck said Monday’s incident illustrates the officers’ quick response and arrest.
“Crime is going down, the number of stolen vehicles is going down,” he said. “This is a rare instance of this happening, especially on the hospital side.”
Albuquerque Journal
