Murder Suspect’s Bond Set

By John Larson

SOCORRO - John J. Hayden, 56, of Socorro, made his first appearance in Magistrate Court Thursday, June 10 to answer a criminal complaint charging him with three felonies, including one open count of murder, aggravated battery against a household member, and kidnapping.
Magistrate Judge Jim Naranjo set Hayden’s bond at $750,000 cash only.
The charges stem from events surrounding the death of Theresa Saiz-Chavez on June 8.
Hayden was arrested last Wednesday, June 9, after a State Police investigation found evidence linking him to the woman’s death.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, at 10 a.m. in Magistrate Court.
Attorney Lee Deschamps is initially acting as Hayden’s defense attorney.
Socorro Police Detective Richard Lopez told the Mountain Mail that Tuesday, June 8, officers “did all they could to locate the car” from which the cell phone call came.
“We got the call [from Theresa Saiz-Chavez] at about 7 a.m.,” Lopez said. “The dispatcher did a good job. She was very hysterical, but gave Hayden’s name, and a description of her car. She mentioned Hayden lived at the Valverde Hotel, and that she thought she might be somewhere near there.”
Lopez said the dispatcher told her to look for an inside trunk handle, “look for a truck handle, he repeated.”
Saiz-Chavez then told the dispatcher the battery on her phone was low, he said.
“She told him, ‘my phone is beeping,’ She was panicky and he kept her calm, saying ‘I want to help you’,” Lopez said. “The dispatcher tried to locate her phone, but her older cell phone was not GPS capable. The Dodge Neon did not have inside trunk handle, and there was a frame between the trunk and rear seats.”
Officers were then dispatched to the Valverde and surrounding neighborhood.
A second officer began looking for Hayden’s Ford Focus.
“We finally tracked him down and he volunteered to come to the police department, and he was questioned about the call from the car,” he said. “Hayden said he had gotten into an argument with Theresa the night before, and that she was probably just mad at him.”
He said police didn’t have enough probable cause to question Hayden further. “After a point it could be a case for ‘unreasonable detention’,” Lopez said. “An officer must conclude the interview after a point if all resources are exhausted.”
He said the officers were kept mindful of anything a defense attorney could use to jeopardize the prosecution in court.
After searching for several hours, they came to the department to re-group, and started a new search within the entire city limits, “going all around town, neighborhood to neighborhood.
“Officers continued throughout the day and the search was passed on to the next shift,” Lopez said. “Then at one point they said we need help and sent the BOLO (Be On the Look Out) out to all law enforcement in the county.”
Lopez said all officers were called in, “including every officer that was off that day.”
Then the report of a drive-by shooting was called in at about 11:30 p.m.
“Officers were looking for that vehicle and set up a perimeter in the area. The green Dodge Neon was found within that perimeter at about midnight. It was her car.”
Officers opened the trunk and found Saiz-Chavez, and immediately contacted State Police.
Saiz-Chavez’s green Dodge Neon was found under a bridge off Chaparral Drive by Socorro police, but that spot was outside the city limits.
According to Socorro police Sgt. Richard Lopez, the investigation was turned over to State Police to avoid jurisdictional issues or conflicts.
“Even though our officers found the car, we knew to investigate the case in the most effective way was to have one agency handle it,” Lopez said. “The defense will take advantage of any reason they can to have the case thrown out, or to have cause for an appeal. We wanted to make sure there were no loopholes.”
“We processed everything within the city limits, but decided that since the crime was outside our jurisdiction, the State Police should be the primary agency to do the investigation,” he said. “The officers did as good a job as could be done.
“Our guys gave it 110 percent; expanding the canvassing area, running license plates. Plus, there were other calls coming in to dispatch during this period.”
He said upgrades to the dispatch center to be GPS capable are in place, but the system cannot be implemented until they get the tower data from cell phone companies.
“Our system here is not out of date. The problem is not the state, not the county. We’re waiting on cell phone companies. That’s the hold-up,” Lopez said. “Calls from land lines are showing up on our screen. Showing the exact location on a map to within ten feet.”
He said 10 years ago most all 911 calls were from land lines.
“Now out of 37 calls we got in one day last week, only three were from land lines,” he said.
One of the tragedies here, even if we had the data from cell phone companies, was that the victim’s cell phone was older and did not have GPS capability. With older phones the call would just show a blank screen.”
He said the cell phone companies have until the end of this year to get the data to the Socorro dispatch center.
If convicted on all counts, Hayden, who is originally from Rhode Island, faces life in prison on the murder charge, 18 years for kidnapping, and three years for aggravated battery on a household member. He could also be fined $20,000.

Murder Suspect’s Bond Set