Feb. 28—Santa Fe police filed charges this week against a third person in connection with the fatal shooting Dec. 30 of James Towle, a 55-year-old Texas resident who was visiting Santa Fe at the time of his death.
Dave Gallegos, 58, who owns Dave’s Muffler Shop on Rufina Street, was charged Monday with tampering with evidence, conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence, and harboring or aiding a felon, according to online court records.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Gallegos is accused of withholding footage from the shop’s surveillance cameras when police asked to review the video as they were investigating the shooting.
Mark Delgado Jr., 29, is accused of killing Towle after midnight Dec. 30 as Towle was walking past the muffler shop on Rufina Street near Siler Road. Delgado, charged Feb. 17 with first-degree murder, has not been arrested. His arrest warrant affidavit doesn’t indicate police have determined a motive for the shooting.
Like Gallegos, Delgado’s cousin — 30-year-old Jose Delgado, who lives in an apartment above Dave’s Muffler Shop — has been accused of obstructing the Santa Fe Police Department’s investigation into the shooting. Jose Delgado is suspected of deleting footage from his personal video surveillance system, an affidavit says. He faces the same charges as Gallegos and was communicating with Gallegos via text during the police department’s initial response and investigation, according to the affidavit.
“I only showed them one camera .not the other one .and I told them I didn’t know who that car was,” Gallegos told Jose Delgado in a text message, according to his arrest warrant affidavit.
“I got them thinking it was someone else,” he texted later.
The arrest warrant for Gallegos was filed Monday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court. However, an unopposed motion to quash the warrant was filed the next day.
A criminal summons for Gallegos had not been filed by Tuesday afternoon, and no court proceedings had been scheduled, according to online court records.
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An attorney for Gallegos wrote in the motion Gallegos’ text exchange with Jose Delgado was “out of context” in the affidavit because the document omitted certain facts.
Gallegos was in Albuquerque during the shooting and returned to Santa Fe in the early morning hours of Dec. 30 at the request of police, the motion says. He had two cameras each indoors and outdoors, and all four monitors were made fully available to investigators, the attorney wrote in the motion.
“Law enforcement saw all four screens and law enforcement chose which videos to record/view/preserve,” the motion states. “The inside cameras, visible to law enforcement, showed only a personal living area. … This omitted material information puts the text message about showing law enforcement only one video in context.”
The motion says Gallegos was asked to meet police at his store several days later, when they demanded his cellphone. When he declined to turn it over, the motion states, investigators threatened to shut down his business until they got a warrant for the phone.
Gallegos claims he declined to provide police with his cellphone because he uses it for his business.
The motion says, “Gallegos was completely cooperative with law enforcement until they began to threaten him.”
Police eventually seized Gallegos’ phone and returned it phone Jan. 6, after his attorney sent the department an email demanding it, the motion states.