Request for pretrial detention for suspect in motel shooting denied | Local news

A local judge on Tuesday denied prosecutors' request to keep a man in custody while he awaits trial on charges he fired an AR-15 rifle into a motel room.

District Judge Jared Kallunki decided not to grant prosecutors' requests to keep 34-year-old Jesse Leyba in custody after a hearing in New Mexico's 5th District Court in Roswell.

Leyba is charged with shooting into an inhabited dwelling or building and tampering with evidence in connection with an Aug. 17 shooting in the 2100 block of a motel on North Main Street.

After the hour-and-a-half-long hearing, Kallunki ruled that the evidence presented by District Attorney Jonathan Roehlk did not meet the requirements to keep Leyba in custody.

Roehlk argued that the charges and the circumstances surrounding them, as well as the burden of proof, showed that no conditions of release could be imposed that would ensure the safety of the public if Leyba remained at large.

However, Kallunki concluded that some of the evidence against Leyba was insufficient to meet the requirements for pre-trial detention.

Kallunki also pointed out that Leyba has been free on $5,000 bail since August 19 and no new charges have been filed against him since then.

Instead of lifting Leyba's release conditions, Kallunki imposed additional conditions, including increasing his bail to $15,000, prohibiting Leyba from contacting his fiancée, requiring him to wear an ankle monitor, and staying at his residence between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Roswell police responded to the shooting around 9:46 p.m. after someone fired shots into a motel room where Leyba was staying.

When called as a witness by prosecutors at Tuesday's hearing, Roswell Police Detective Shaye Duran confirmed that as part of the investigation, he had viewed surveillance video from the motel shortly before the shooting.

Duran said the video shows someone wearing similar clothing to Leyba and with a similar build and hairline crossing the street to the motel.

The video then shows the figure walking to Room 40, kicking in the door and then opening fire into the room. Duran noted that up to 17 shell casings were found.

After the shooting, witnesses reported seeing a man running east, Duran said. A gun was later found on a fence 200 yards from the room where the shooting occurred.

Duran said after a description of a possible shooter surfaced, police were notified that a security guard at Lovelace Regional Hospital reported finding a person matching the suspect's description in the hospital parking lot.

Duran said surveillance video of the shooting showed the gunman walking east after the shooting before a Chrysler 300 pulled up in front of the motel room. Someone, presumably Leyba's fiancée, exits the vehicle and looks toward the door of the motel room from which the gun is fired.

Duran said the video shows a person believed to be Leyba hiding in a nearby corner and calling out to the woman before running over and talking to him.

Police officers then arrived at the motel and Duran said that's when they encountered Leyba's fiancée and began questioning her as she walked back to the car.