Hide Article Text (OCR)
Former Mental Patient Held in Breen SlayingTUCUMCARI, N.M. lt;AP -A former mental patient who was arrested Thursday on a murder warrant in the gunshot slaying of Dist. Atty. Victor Breen had once threatened the district attorney, Breen’s assistant said today.Jose Rosendo Garcia, 45, was arrested Thursday night in Be-len. just south of Albuquerque.Breen was shot and killed by a single shot from a .30-caliber caliber carbine Wednesday morning outside his home as he started to get in his car to go to work. He had been attorney more than 20 years for the district of DeBaca, Harding and Quay counties.Garcia had never been considered dangerous, Asst. Dist. Atty. Norman Runyan said.But Breen “had received at least one threat on his life from Garcia, who has a long history of mental and emotional problems,” Runyan said, adding that Breen had once helped prepare legal action to commit Garcia to the State Hospital in Las Vegas, N.M.Garcia had lived in Tucum-cari for several years, but had moved to Belen about two months agoAtty. Gen. David Norvell, who had been helping with the investigation, said Garcia apparently didn’t have a criminal record.He had been admitted to the State Hospital in October 1968 and was released three months later on 90 days convalescent leave, a hospital spokesman said. The leave was extended to November 1969 when he was returned to the hospital.Garcia remained in the hospital until January 1970, and has been on convalescent leave since that time.Garcia, arrested at a Belen motel, was taken to the Valencia County jail in Los Lunas and then was transferred to the Bernalillo County jail in Albuquerque.He was being taken to Tucumcari today.Norvell said the caller “gave officers a place in Albuquerque, one in Los Lunas, and one in Belen where Garcia could be staying We checked the one in Belen first.”Norvell said the car recovered at the motel where Garcia was arrested fitted the description of “a car near the Breen residence at the time ofBreen’s death.” *The arrest was made by State Policemen Alberto Benavidez and J. B. Sosa, and three State Police plainclothes agents.Officers said Garcia offered only token resistence, but he was carried into the Bernalillo County jail, with hands and legs bound, by State Policeman Alberto Benavides of Belen.Funeral services for Breen are set for 10 a.m. Saturday in the First Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Breen was a member of the Methodist Church, but the larger Baptist Church was selected to handle the expected attendance Center Street Methodist Church pastor Gene Richardson will conduct services.
Newspaper Details
Los Alamos Monitor
Los Alamos, New Mexico, US
Fri, Dec 03, 1971
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AU 09 Sep 2024
Other Publications Near Los Alamos, New Mexico
Los Alamos Monitor
