Gun at school traced to Texas murder

MAGDALENA, N.M. (KRQE) - Investigators are trying to figure out how a gun used in a Texas murder ended up in the hands of a 14-year-old small-town New Mexico boy.

On Nov. 29 calls came in that someone was shooting a gun outside a high school basketball game, Magdalena Marshal Larry Cearly told KRQE News 13. Witnesses said the person firing the weapon was a 14-year-old boy.

“The coach tackled him and got the gun away from him,” Cearly said.

Cearly said the boy told him he took the gun on campus "just to be cool."

The marshal searched the boy and tagged into evidence the pistol, two clips and even the boy's school work. When Cearly ran the gun's serial number he found out it was linked to a murder in Houston.

Cearly said the boy and his mother were also shocked to hear the news.

“He just put his head down between his legs, and Mom kept saying, 'Oh my God.  Oh my God.  Where'd that gun come from?'” Cearly said.

Cearly said Houston detectives told him the gun was used in a home invasion where the three invaders made sure the homeowner died.

“He jumped out a window, but they ended up firing at him with two guns," Cearly said.  "One of them we got.”

Now the marshal is trying to retrace the gun’s tracks to find out how it ended up in the hands of the boy, who so far has given two different stories.

“His first story was he got from some people in Socorro,” Cearly said.

The boy didn’t give up a name, and then his story changed.

“They second story the next day from his family is that he found that weapon in an arroyo just west of Magdalena,” Cearly said.

Cearly said the boy claims he said he found it in a burned-out car a few weeks ago. However, the marshal said there were no footprints around the car that's been sitting in the desert for more than a decade.

“We just can’t put that gun there,” Cearly said. “I wish we could find out where the gun came from.”

The marshal said he's interviewed nine kids so far and has eight more on his list. For now the boy is charged with possession of a gun as a minor and possession on school grounds.

There was a second teen with the boy who has not been charged but he could be disciplined for having drugs on campus, the marshal added.