Wiccan doesn't buy Sanford's story

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Angela Sanford, the woman accused of killing a man with a Wiccan dagger, made her first appearance in court Wednesday.

She told authorities she was partaking in a Wiccan ritual when she killed Joel Leyva after feeling threatened.

That excuse is not sitting well with other Wiccans.

Linda Owl, a local practicing Wiccan, said Sanford is using the Wiccan religion as an excuse for her actions on Monday. Owl says a Wiccan would never use a ritual dagger as a weapon.

"A dagger like this," Owl told News 13 as she held her own 12-inch long dagger. "Would be blessed and cleansed in rituals and (to use it as a weapon) it would be so wrong."

Wiccans, according to Owl, place heavy symbolism on items like candles and necklaces. None of those items were part of Sanford's ritual.

Owl said Sanford wasn't even celebrating her ritual, the Equinox, on the right day when the murder occurred. She also said the ritual wasn't being performed in a proper place in the Albuquerque foothills.

"You just don't do it out in the middle of nowhere," Owl told News 13. "A ritual like that would be out in the middle of a group."

Sanford now faces murder charges, but Owl says her fate will be even worse.

"No one person has the right to crucify or curse or condemn," Owl said. "If you do, you will pay for it and it's three times worse than what they paid for it."