Prosecutors dismissed felony conspiracy charges against a Chimayó couple that stemmed from a December incident in which the father of one of the pair was accused of shooting another man at a compound where the families live.
Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies allege 50-year-old Joseph Padilla shot 23-year-old Isaiah Leyba-Moya in the leg just before Leyba-Moya rode off the property on a dirt bike. Investigators also charged Padilla’s son and daughter-in-law with felony conspiracy charges, alleging the three conspired over the phone for about 20 minutes before dialing 911 to report the incident.
While Padilla still faces charges of shooting at or from a motor vehicle, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, charges filed against his son and daughter-in-law — Joshua Padilla, 27, and Ashley Morfin, 32 — were dropped by prosecutors last week.
Leyba-Moya was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass.
Sheriff’s office investigators believe Padilla shot Leyba-Moya in the leg after Leyba-Moya went into his son’s home without permission, but a detective wrote in affidavits the two men gave conflicting stories about the incident.
Joseph Padilla told officers he came upon Leyba-Moya in the doorway of the couple’s mobile home while he was trying to leave with their safe. Padilla said he shot Leyba-Moya from about 10 feet away, police wrote.
Leyba-Moya, meanwhile, said he entered the home and called out for Joshua Padilla to meet with him before walking out the door. Leyba-Moya said Joseph Padilla then walked over to him and scolded him before shooting him in the right leg from about a foot away.
The lead investigator noted in an affidavit Morfin was inside the couple’s home at the time of trespass as well as the shooting and that she and Joseph Padilla each had phone calls with Joshua Padilla — who was not at the scene — in the time between the shooting and Joseph Padilla’s call to 911 to report the incident.
The investigator alleged Morfin and Joshua Padilla had “conspired” after the shooting “to either notify 911 or not to report it.”
The conspiracy charges were dismissed by prosecutors May 7 “without prejudice,” meaning they could be refiled or presented to a grand jury.
Morfin’s attorney, Kitren Fischer, noted in a recent email the charges against the couple were dismissed after prosecutors reviewed the case.
“Ms. Morfin was the victim of a crime that day, and she should have never been charged in the first place,” Fischer wrote. “The detective who charged her did not have probable cause to believe that Ashley had committed any crime, let alone a serious felony.”