Two Arrested in Homicide Victims Stolen Car, Admits to 3 Homicides
Yoan Pena Santiesteban, 34, and Gloria Chavez, 26, were arrested by NM State Police in a stolen white Nissan Versa.
It was learned that Santiesteban was arrested by Bernalillo County Deputies on 05/27/2017 on fraud charges for using a stolen credit card belonging to homicide victim Matthew Severinghaus. Detectives spoke to Santiesteban during this arrest and he insisted he found the wallet but admitted to using the card at a local bank. At this time detectives did not have any evidence to prove he was at the shooting and he was booked on the felony fraud charges.
On 05/30/2017 at approximately 5:00 pm, New Mexico State Police officers located a white Nissan Versa that was reported as a stolen vehicle near Santa Rosa, NM. The officers stopped the vehicle and took both Santiesteban and Chavez into custody. NMSP officers learned the vehicle they were driving belonged to homicide victim, Samir Al-Abboudy, which had occurred on 05/14/2017 at 2120 Menaul Blvd. Both were arrested and transported for questioning by APD Violent Crimes Detectives.
Both were interviewed by detectives and admitted they were responsible for three homicides that occurred in the month of May. These victims were earlier identified as Samir Al-Abboudy on May 14th 2017, Celina Arrellanes on May 24th 2017 and Matthew Severinghaus on May 26th 2017. Criminalistic evidence linked them to all these scenes by casings located at each shooting scene.
Detectives learned through speaking with Santiesteban and Chavez that they had planned to rob Severinghaus and Al-Abboudy and for no known reason killed both and proceeded to rob them. Both admitted they met an unknown male in the area of 9000 Zuni Rd to buy meth and planned to rob him as well. Upon shooting at him they killed Arrellanes who was not involved and was an innocent bystander. Santiesteban said when he was released from MDC on the fraud charges, he located Chavez and both were going to Santa Rosa where Chavez's parents reside when NMSP located them.
Santiesteban and Garcia were arrested and charged with Murder, Robbery with a Deadly Weapon and Tampering with Evidence. Detectives are still investigating to see if they are connected to any other crimes.
We want to the thank the New Mexico State Police for their involvement and assistance with this investigation. All the investigators involved in this case did an outstanding job which made these arrests possible and the ability to get these two violent offenders off the streets.