Sanchez moving on from murder charge

One day after being freed from a murder charge Luke Sanchez recalled the fatal shooting of a suspected burglar and said he remains convinced he did the right thing.

“If I wouldn't have defended my life that night, I wouldn't here talking to you,” Sanchez said Thursday.

Now Sanchez said he wants to put the shooting, the publicity and the fear of facing a murder trial behind him.

Valencia County deputies initially arrested Sanchez on an open count of murder, and prosecutors argued during a preliminary hearing this week that he should stand trial for second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. Instead Magistrate Judge Danny Hawkes ruled prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to present either charge to a jury.

Sanchez told reporters that while he doesn't care if some people think he's a vigilante, he'd rather be known as a father and husband, a former Marine or a Farmer.

“I was in jail when my crops needed to be harvested,” Sanchez said reminding reporters he lost a lot of money trying to clear himself.

The now ex-defendant said that on July 4 he was being a good neighbor doing his part to stop crime.

“I just did what a concerned citizen would do,” Sanchez said. “I saw a robbery taking place, and that was assist law enforcement.”

And he has no regrets about following Gary Gabaldón's van in Los Chavez after the suspected burglary to get a license plate number.

Minutes after breaking off the chase Sanchez said he was ambushed by Gabaldón who, according to the autopsy, was extremely drunk.

Sanchez said he can never forget the confrontation and the sound of shattering glass when Gabaldón smashed his truck window and lunged at him. Sanchez said he was only defending himself when he grabbed his Colt pistol and fired the fatal shot.

“I did the right thing,” he said. “And I knew the whole time I did the right thing.”

Sanchez wants to move past the tragedy, but even when publicity dies down that will be hard.

Every day Sanchez drives by the scene of the shooting past a roadside memorial maintained by Gabaldón's friends and family.

“It reminds me a split second less and I could have been the one dead there,” Sanchez said.

He also said he is concerned for his family's safety in the wake of threats he believes are from people close to Gabaldón, who had a long criminal record.

However he said he's not sure if he'll file a police report.