Takedown of brothers in murder detailed

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - More details have emerged on the capture of two brothers who on the run from murder, kidnapping and arson charges until officers caught up with them in Albuquerque Tuesday night.

The U.S. Marshals Service and New Mexico State Police found them hiding out in a motel on Central Avenue NE near Interstate 25.  They describe the fugitives as dangerous men from a family with a violent history. 

A team of marshals and state officers spent the last week focused on finding Joe and Andrew Gallegos.  They were wanted for killing Adrian Burns and then burning him and setting his car on fire on Nov. 13 in the Rio Grande bosque near Bernard about midway between Belen and Socorro.

Police say the brothers didn’t put up a fight when officers found them. 

Along with the pair were two women.  Officers charged one of them, Charlene Baldizan, a girlfriend to one of the men, with harboring or aiding a felon. 

They say there was another woman with the brothers, a relative, but they couldn’t charge her because of a law on the books in New Mexico.

"There's a clause in the state law that certain, specific relatives can't be charged with that offense," State Police Lt. Tim Johnson said.

Officers say they also found heroin in the hotel room.

Police say both men have a long and violent history.  They say Andrew was charged with a 1995 murder, but it’s not clear why he didn’t serve time.

“District Court didn’t have records of what happened to that case, nor did the DA’s office," Johnson said.  "We’re still looking into that."
        
Andrew and Joe aren’t the only members of the Gallegos family tied to murder.  Their brothers, Ben and Frankie, are both serving 45 years in federal prison for a triple murder in Albuquerque in 1994.

Joe and Andrew Gallegos are now custody in Socorro County.  They are set to be arraigned within the next 10 days.