LAS VEGAS, N.M. (KRQE) – After New Mexico State Police were dispatched to a vehicle crash outside Las Vegas, New Mexico, they say they discovered a man with a gunshot wound to the head and a woman fleeing the scene.
In the criminal complaint filed in magistrate court, New Mexico State Police claim 31-year-old Rosa Ybarra was running away from the crash armed with a gun on May 15. They say she was trying to stop passing vehicles.
Back at the scene of the crash, officers say they found a man slumped over along with some whiskey. The victim was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
When NMSP interviewed Ybarra, they said she told them that she and the victim had been chased by someone in a black car and that she heard gunshots before the victim slumped over and they crashed. Ybarra then told a different story, according to police. She later reportedly told officers that she needed a gun to feel safe around the victim and claimed that he had hit her, so she shot the man, according to allegations in the criminal complaint.
Now, officials have charged Ybarra with an open count of first-degree murder. They say she was booked in the San Miguel Detention Center.
