By Kevin Buey
Deming Headlight
LUNA COUNTY, N.M. — On the seventh day after his escape, Luna County Detention Center inmate Jose Adam Gonzalez, 26, was recaptured.
Deming Police Officers and Luna County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Gonzales, Sunday evening, a week after he failed to return to the Luna County Detention Center from a work-release program.
Gonzales, of the 300 block of South Sierra, was tazed by a LCSO deputy on property in the 400 block of West Pine Street, after he repeatedly refused orders to show his hands. There was some thought Gonzalez — also known as “Strawberry” — had a hidden weapon.
Deming Police Chief Michael Carillo said a Crime Stoppers’ tip received Sunday sent officers to the 200 block of South Tin Street. Officers knocked on a door there several times, but the female occupant was slow to respond and a male subject was seen escaping through a window.
The man, later identified as Gonzales, was ordered several times to stop, Carillo said, but did not comply.
Gonzalez ran to West Pear Street and a nearby alley and got onto property in the 400 block of West Pear. He was unable to enter the building there and was confronted by lawmen. He was tazed by LCSO Cpl. Jose Martinez, then taken to Mimbres Memorial Hospital for medical clearance and returned to Luna County Detention Center. Gonzales is charged with escape from jail on a magistrate court warrant and faces an additional charge of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.
In the week in which Gonzalez was at large, the DPD and LCSO responded to numerous tips on his possible locations.
Gonzalez, who was in a program in which he worked at a Deming business, did not return to the LCDC by his scheduled 7 p.m. reporting time on Monday, June 6. The LCSO reported Gonzalez had later called the jail and said he was on his way, but didn’t return.
Gonzalez was serving a 364-day term for aggravated burglary on a February 2005 case in which he entered a home in the 2400 block of Rockhound Road S.E. and armed himself with weapons in the home.
Gonzalez was assigned to the Recidivism Reduction program (RRP), a three-phased program begun at the LCDC last spring. It offers an inmate help in dealing with the issues that resulted in detention.
Phase One begins with 12-step, self-help programs, education and working with N.M. Workforce Solutions. It also involves community service. Inmates work inside the LCDC and at various selected sites in the county, earning points for their work. Each task earns one point. It takes 300 points to move from Phase One to Phase Two, 700 points to reach Phase Three. The RRP can reduce an inmate’s detention as much as 5 1/2 months.
Points acquired by an RRP inmate are lost as a result of violations, and an inmate no longer qualifies for RRP.
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