Armando Lopez told a judge recently that he had found the road to redemption. The sheriff's department says he took a quick detour in a stolen Oldsmobile.
State District Judge James Blackmer said that Lopez, 28, talked a good talk after pleading guilty recently to a pair of felony burglary charges. He said he had been accepted into a Christian outreach group, acknowledged he had been hurting the public and wanted to be released from jail pending sentencing. A pastor from the outreach group even spoke on his behalf.
The judge, who agreed to the release, said he instructed Lopez to obey the law. 'I emphasized that,' Blackmer recalled. He also told Lopez, 'This gives you some rope — either to pull yourself up or to hang yourself.'
Lopez chose the latter, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department. Jail records show he was released at 5 a.m. the next day, and he was back in custody exactly one hour later after reportedly stealing a pair of cars and leading a deputy on a high-speed chase.
Lopez wasn't immediately linked to the theft of the first car, a gray Buick, which had been wrecked into a telephone pole and abandoned. But while checking inside it, deputies allegedly found Lopez's jail release papers — signed by Blackmer — along with a certificate of completion from an outreach program.
They're now tagged into evidence.
Blackmer said he sometimes lets nonviolent offenders out of jail because they have a big incentive to prove they're going to 'straighten up and fly right' before the judge hands down a sentence.
He said he knows of others who have done crimes after getting out of jail, but 'I can't really recall one in this short of time. This is about as fast as you can get.'
Blackmer said Lopez faced a prison sentence of as little as one year — and no more than three years — as part of his plea agreement.
But Blackmer warned Lopez that if he broke the law, he could face a 10-year prison sentence.
It appears Lopez won't be getting another chance at freedom soon. Blackmer ordered him held in jail without bond after the recent arrest.
Before being released, Lopez had been in jail since late March.
Lopez is suspected of an early morning break-in on Feb. 9. In that case, two men forced their way into a home, and one pointed a handgun at the man who lives there.
The man with the gun kept asking his accomplice if he should kill the victim, the complaint states.
Lopez was spotted running from a deputy near the scene and was caught after a chase and a struggle.
Lopez also was suspected of committing another burglary of an occupied home in March.
Blackmer said Monday's plea agreement closed those two cases and a third case.
The criminal complaint filed in the Tuesday morning auto thefts said Deputy Tim Miller spotted a maroon Oldsmobile about 5:45 a.m. speeding south on Isleta with no lights on. Miller tried to catch up to the car, which eventually skidded sideways and stopped.
The driver ran off, but Miller caught him after a chase.
Other deputies went out to investigate another stolen vehicle that was wrecked on Valley SW, the complaint said. And it added during that investigation, 'nine documents were found in the car on
Valley including Armando's release papers from (jail) with his name, date of birth and Social Security number on them.'
Blackmer said Lopez 'seemed pretty sincere' about changing his life during Monday's hearing. And the judge said he asked Lopez if he wanted to risk what was at stake.
'I advised him it would be a very lousy trade — to trade six weeks of freedom between now and sentencing vs. seven or eight (extra prison) years,' Blackmer said. 'He said 'Yes. I want to prove to myself, and you, I can do it.'''