Leonel Andrade Garcia, center, Wednesday in First Judicial District Court in Tierra Amarilla. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
A Rio Arriba County jury heard opening arguments Wednesday before First Judicial District Judge Anastasia Martin in Tierra Amarilla in a 2024 case involving multiple charges, including first degree murder and arson.
The defendant, Leonel Andrade Garcia, 42, of Hernandez, is represented by attorney Todd Holmes. Garcia is accused of killing Analilia Morales in her Chimayo home and setting the home on fire.
Last week, testimony was heard from the Office of the Medical Investigator, the initial officers on the scene, the victim who survived Jesus Morales, Analilia Morales’s son, firefighters who treated Jesus Morales, the firefighter who extracted Ana from the home, neighbors and Ana’s sister.
Elizabeth Counce, Senior Trial Attorney for the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in her opening argument began by quoting Analilia Morales, the victim, in her request for an order of protection against Garcia.
“‘He always tells me he is going to kill me. I will kill her a thousand times’ This trial is really that simple, that straight forward,” Counce said, adding that the evidence will show that Analilia Morales, a 44-year old woman and a mother, filed a petition for a protection order against Garcia. In her own handwriting in Spanish, Ms. Morales had written the words and 12 days later, Counce said she was brutally murdered in her home, which was then set on fire.
“In (Garcia’s) car on the back of that same protection order, Det. Victor Rodriguez found a two-page manifesto explaining all the reasons Ana Morales deserved to die. ‘I will kill her a thousand times’. Signed ‘LAG’ – Leonel Andrade Garcia,” Counce said.
She said the evidence in the case goes far beyond the writing on the back of the protection orderwith writing on the back of it 0 that the jury would hear from 25 witnesses for the state and would see the physical evidence. She told the jury to pay close attention to all the physical evidence.
“What you will see and hear first hand is that this defendant wouldn’t take no for an answer. He insisted that Ana Morales was not going to disrespect him. He had to do things on his own. You will see the letter where those exact words are written. ‘I had to do things on my own.’ She caused this because she wanted to do it for me,” Counce said.
She said evidence will show that he stalked her, that door cam video shows he was there the day before the murder and wanted to come in. She said he was there and they didn’t answer the door.
“He was lying in wait the morning of the murder. He sat in his little read parked car and waited for her son to leave for work at 9 a.m. He approached the house and waited outside for Ana to leave for her work at 7 a.m. Camera footage will show him standing off to the side. And when she actually leaves the house, there’s a struggle and he pushes her back inside. He tried to drag her out by her neck – cam footage again – in a choke hold. She somehow slipped away and he forces his way back into the home,” Counce said.
She said Garcia tied Ms Morales to a chair and went outside and that he was was seen on camera footage coming back into the home with fluid in a bottle and a lighter. Meanwhile, Ana’s sister finds out she’s not at work and is concerned, Counce said. She drives to Ana’s house and when she opens the front door, she sees blood and she hears her sister screaming.
“She can’t get in the door. She leaves. She runs to her mom and dad’s house, which is also where her brother lives – Jesus. She asks them for help. They run back. Jesus approaches the door. Within moments he is being stabbed seven times – a lot of bleeding,” she said.” He died in the parking area.The only other person in that house started a fire. The house is ablaze.”
Counce said the security grate is pulled off the window to try to get into the house to try to save Ms. Morales.. She said by this time, 911 has been called and fire trucks are on the way. The scene is chaos. Fire trucks are trying to put out the fire, and one firefighter approaches the house and gets to the window and he goes in because he has been told there’s a women in there.
Counce said Ms. Morales is found tied to a chair and there is blood everywhere. She said Ms. Morales is tied so tightly that the firefighter has to take the whole chair, move it and cut the bindings in order to move her out. Jesus is transported quickly to the hospital by ambulance.
State police officers arrive and try to lo locare Garcia, searching the garage. Counce said they did not find him th but they found that he had been there. They then searched the field behind the house and found Garcia inkited
Then New Mexico State Police officers start to arrive and Sgt. Trujillo tries to find the suspect. It had been stated that the suspect had gone into a garage so they go and look. They did not find him there but found that he had been there, They go out into the field behind the house where they find Garcia injured and bleeding on the ground.
“When they pick him up, there’s a knife undernearh him, stuck straight into the ground. Leonel later admitted to Det. Rodriguez that he actually stabbed himself that day, but he denies he stabbed anyone else. After extracting the deceased Ana from the house, after facing a fire that destroyed Ana’s home, after taking a critically injured patient to the hospital, and after saving the life of the defendant himself, the detectives and police, fire arson experts, chemists trained in detecting accelerants and OMI doctors start piecing togetherwhat exactly had occurred at 5 Private Drive in Chimayo, NM,” Counce said.
She said arson experts will testify, how there was testing for accelerants in the home and on Garcia’s clothing that was removed at the hospital. She said the jury will see doorbell cmera footage, and hear from relatives and neighbors as to what they saw when they were there.
Counce reiterate that between the passenger’s sear and the console in Garca’s car was a copy of the protection order that Ana filed and the two pages of writing on the back.two pages of why that Garcia had handwritten.
“Tthat if he had a thousand lives, that he would kill her again. And at the end of this trial, the state will ask you to return a verdict of guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, arson, aggravated burglary, attempt to commit first degree murder, aggravated stalkig, and criminal damage to property,” Counce concluded.
Garcia’s attorney, Mr. Holmes told jurors that there had been a horrible tragedy on August 26. 2024.
“Ana Morales is no longer with us. Leonel Garcia was within inches of not being here today either. And what makes it worse is the state’s rendition. The evidence that I’m going to show you is that this is not first degree murder. The evidence that I’m going to show you is that this is not attempted first degree murder on Jesus,” Holmes said,
He said there was no plan to murder Ms. Morales’s brother Jesus and that Jesis had a bat in his hand when he came to the door. He said Leonel opened the door and Leonel was already stabbed. He grabbed the knife from somebody that stabbed him with from inside.
“The claim by the government is that Leonel stabbed himself – eight or nine times in the stomach. How do you do that? The evidence is going to show you that doesn’t make sense. If you could even do that once, or if this was a murder suiicide,” Holmes said.
He said he didn’t think there was anything planned out by Garcia to kill Ms Morales or himself. He said the cameras on’ I don’t think there’s anything, basically, that this was planned out – I’m going to kill Ana and I’m going to kill myself. Well that didn’t happen. The cameras don’t pick up every movement, that they have gapps in the footage.
“The evidence is going to show this was not a planned out. wilful. deliberate, first degree murder. I’m not sure whose writing that was. I know that Leonel woke up that day to go to work. He does landscaping. He’s been in Rio Arriba County for 20 or 30 years. Worked as a chef, worked at Rancho de Chimayo restaurant for years, was doing landscaping back in August 2024. And he stops by Ana’s house to get his tools to go do his job. You’re not going to hear any evidence that the police even checked that out,” Holmes said.
He said when Leonel gets to the door he notices that something ain’t right, that something is “going down” in Ana’s house.
“You will hear evidence that this case at the very best was a crime of passion. The emotions got the best of somebody. Rash impulse – the evidence will show this was rash impulse, not first degree murder,” Holmes said.
He said when Garcia opened the door, he saw Jesus with bad and that Jesus took a couple of swings at him. When he opened the door and saw Jesus with a bat, Jesus took a couple of swings at him and was in fear of receiving a battery from that bat.
Holmes also suggested that there were “things that were metioned in reports” that were mistakes or grossly negligent actions to report things in the police reports. You’re also going to hear things that were mentioned in reports that were mistakes or grossly negligent actions to report things in the police report.
“An affidavit for a search warrant says (Garcia) was in Espanola hospital, which he wasn’t. An officer said he had a ginshot wound from a shotgun. Not true. At the end of the next four, or five, or sex days, we’re going to be asking you to find him not guilty. They have to prove each and every element. I submit to you the evidence in this case is not going to support those findings beyond a reasonable doubt,” Mr. Holmes said.
The trial continues Monday with evidence from fire arson experts and the case agent. the doctor who treated Jesus Morales, and an expert in domestic violence. The case is expected to go to the jury by the end of the week.