State police investigate homicide of Chimayó man wanted in girlfriend's beating

May 20—New Mexico State Police officers attempting to serve an arrest warrant to a Chimayó man last week instead found him slain at his home.

Police arrived May 14 at the home of Christopher Serrano, 41, who had been accused a week earlier of brutally beating his girlfriend for hours as he held her in his house against her will. He faced charges of kidnapping, criminal sexual contact and six counts of aggravated battery against a household member.

A state police news release offers few details about Serrano's death — including a possible suspect or motive — but indicates his body might have been discovered outside the home.

Upon arriving at the residence, officers found Serrano "lying face down with apparent trauma to his body," the news release states.

"Believing a noise was heard inside the residence, a perimeter was set up around the residence, and the NMSP Tactical Team arrived to clear the residence," police said. "No one was located inside."

Serrano's death is being investigated as a homicide by the state police Investigations Bureau. The agency declined to provide more information.

A week before Serrano's body was found, state police officers were dispatched to an intersection near his home where they found his girlfriend severely beaten, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. The woman told them Serrano had trapped her inside his home and beat her for hours.

State police filed six felony counts and three misdemeanor counts against Serrano, according to a criminal complaint filed in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court.

The arrest warrant affidavit says Serrano's girlfriend had fled from his home the afternoon of May 7, running barefoot for about a mile before she arrived at a house where she called police for help.

Serrano had been beating her since 3 a.m. that morning, she told police, and he had taken her cellphone and nailed the doors of his house shut while "physically, and violently, holding her from reaching any exit," police wrote in the affidavit.

Police noted the woman had fresh injuries that were consistent with her story of physical abuse.

The woman alleged Serrano had been using methamphetamine and cocaine, and that he had punched her all over her body, pulled her hair out, stabbed her ear with a pen, sexually assaulted her and strangled her, the affidavit says. She also told them he held a knife to her stomach and threatened to kill her.

"I was fighting for my life," the woman said, according to the affidavit.

The woman "continuously looked around as if she was in fear of someone," police wrote in the affidavit, and she was "very uneasy and uncomfortable."

She said it wasn't the first time he had physically abused her, but she feared going to police because Serrano had threatened to kill her if she did so, the affidavit states.

The woman was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Serrano also was charged in April with assault on a household member after the couple were pulled over in Española. The woman told Española police she was trying to break up with Serrano, but he would not let her leave, according to a criminal complaint filed in that case.

Police wrote in the complaint Serrano's girlfriend told them he had threatened to burn her car if she left him.

The felony charge was pending at the time of Serrano's death.