Husband accused of serving poison wine

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - A southern New Mexico man has been charged with trying to kill his estranged wife and mother-in-law by putting pesticide into their wine.

Dona Ana County sheriff's investigators arrested Domingo "Tito" Gomez, 51, of Hatch, on Wednesday night and charged him with five counts of attempted first-degree murder.

A criminal complaint in Las Cruces magistrate court alleges Gomez tried to poison the women by injecting carbofuran into their wine or vitamins on five different occasions between January and March 2008.

Four counts allege he tried to poison his wife, Myrna Gomez; the fifth alleges he tried to poison his mother-in-law, Vellia Amendariz.

The Gomezes are getting a divorce, and Myrna Gomez has custody of their children, according to an investigator's report.

Magistrate Oscar Frietze set Domingo Gomez's bail at $45,000 cash. Court documents did not list an attorney for him.

The women hid one bottle of wine and other items they suspected were tampered with. They all tested positive for carbofuran, according to a report sheriff's investigator Benjamin Martin filed to support the criminal complaint.

The investigation found Gomez had access to the pesticide at the farm where he works.

Carbofuran, which had been in restricted use, was banned from agricultural use in December.

It's highly toxic if swallowed. Symptoms include headaches, lightheadedness, weakness, abdominal cramps, nausea, excessive salivation, sweating and blurred vision. More severe symptoms can include fluid buildup in the lungs, convulsions and coma.

Martin said Myrna Gomez and her mother described similar symptoms when they became ill after taking wine from Domingo Gomez. Both women said they were short of breath and felt weak, and they forced themselves to vomit.

Myrna Gomez told the investigator when she confronted her husband about the coincidence of becoming ill after drinking the wine, he poured the wine down the sink.

In February 2008, Myrna Gomez said she felt short of breath and some paralysis after taking a vitamin that seemed to be more porous and a different color than usual. She went into respiratory failure on the way to a hospital, and an emergency room doctor thought she was having a stroke, the report said.

The couple's son told investigators that he saw his father drop a brownish pill into water he then gave the boy's mother, the report said. The son also said he overheard his father tell someone on the phone that "she knows I'm trying to poison her."

Myrna Gomez told Martin her husband had been abusive during their marriage, but she seldom called officers because she was afraid of him.

The case has been under investigation since late 2008, but out-of-state tests on the wine and other products took time, sheriff's spokesman Bo Nevarez said.