Pickup driver third person to be charged in Easter Sunday violence
Apr. 8—A man accused of injuring two people with his pickup — one of them critically — has become the third person charged in relation to a violent incident among neighbors on Easter Sunday.
Ricky Leyba, 37, of Santa Fe faces single counts of attempted murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of criminal damage to property totaling more than $51,000, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court. Leyba remains in the hospital from gunshot wounds he sustained during the March 31 incident.
Police said Leyba was shot in the face and upper torso after he struck another man with his truck at a high rate of speed outside a home on Verdinal Lane. After being hit, he's alleged to have begun driving in reverse, backing over his girlfriend's daughter, Destiny Quintana, and striking two houses farther down the street.
Santiago Prada, 34, and Steven Sena, 32, already face several felony counts in the Easter Sunday incident, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police alleged they were pointing guns at Leyba and another man and Prada fired on Leyba after he hit the man with his truck. Leyba was critically wounded.
Prosecutors have asked the state District Court to order Prada and Sena held in the Santa Fe County jail until their trial on the charges.
The incident unfolded in the evening outside Prada's home on Verdinal Lane, according to police reports and court documents. Police have alleged surveillance video shows Leyba "flipping over" a motorcycle that belongs to Nick Quintana, a guest at Prada's home, prompting a fight between Leyba, Nick Quintana, Prada and Sena, who also was a guest at the Easter gathering.
Leyba's brother, Paul Ortiz, arrived at the scene after he received a call from Leyba, who said he was being "jumped," criminal complaints state. Documents say Ortiz joined in the fight.
An arrest warrant affidavit filed Friday against Leyba provides new details about the people involved and the series of events that ended with Leyba and Destiny Quintana severely injured.
Destiny Quintana, who was struck by the truck as she tried to flee from the gunfire, remained in critical condition Friday at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, police wrote in Leyba's arrest warrant affidavit.
Leyba was taken to Christus St. Vincent after the incident and was then flown to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque for treatment. He remained hospitalized Monday, Santa Fe police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said, adding Leyba will be arrested on the charges after he is released from the hospital.
The affidavit says police questioned Nick Quintana as well as Destiny Quintana's mother, Felicia Valdez, who told them she, Leyba and her daughter live down the street from Prada on Verdinal Lane.
Leyba returned to Prada's property three times that day, even as Valdez warned him against it, she told police. The third time, he was driving the pickup.
Nick Quintana told police he had been fighting with Ortiz when he was struck by Leyba's pickup, the affidavit says. He said his body "flew" 20 to 30 feet after he was hit.
Police wrote in the affidavit Nick Quintana was released from a local hospital the same evening and did not suffer life-threatening injuries.
After Leyba struck Nick Quintana with the truck and was then struck by Prada's gunfire, police wrote, surveillance video shows Leyba drove the truck in reverse, striking Destiny Quintana and continuing on to crash into two houses that sit more than 250 feet down the street.
A crash reconstruction analysis showed Leyba was driving backward about 21 mph when he struck Destiny Quintana without braking, the affidavit says.
When police asked Nick Quintana if he had any personal issues with Leyba, he said there were "past" problems between the two that he characterized as "nonsense," according to the affidavit.
He told police Leyba's actions were "uncalled for, especially on Easter."
