Jan. 7—An Española man on parole for a murder in 2009 was arrested this week in connection with a slaying in Chimayó after a monthslong investigation by New Mexico State Police.
Fabian Gallegos — known to others by the nicknames Suave or Suavecito — is accused of beating 41-year-old Christopher Serrano to death outside Serrano’s home.
Police had arrived at the Chimayó residence May 14 to arrest Serrano on charges of kidnapping, criminal sexual contact and aggravated battery, alleging he had brutally beaten and raped his girlfriend a week before. Instead, they found him dead.
Court documents do not indicate the fatal beating was connected with the alleged incident involving Serrano’s girlfriend. Witnesses told police Gallegos had arrived at Serrano’s home with two other men to collect items he had purchased from Serrano and ended up beating him to death with a pipe.
An arrest warrant affidavit says state police officers discovered Serrano’s body hog-tied and face-down in the dirt, with tape over his mouth and a large pool of blood around his head.
Police allege Gallegos threatened at least one other man involved in the incident, saying he would kill the man if he told anyone what happened.
Gallegos, 37, faces felony charges of second-degree murder and bribery of a witness, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court.
Gallegos was arrested by state police Monday and booked into the Santa Fe County jail, according to the facility’s database.
Police wrote in an affidavit Serrano’s autopsy report said he died from asphyxial injuries and blunt-force trauma to his head.
State police issued a news release about the incident a week after Serrano’s death, but provided few details on the slaying and investigation.
The New Mexican submitted numerous requests for public records related to Serrano’s death, but state police for more than seven months have withheld all reports in the investigation. Records staff for the state Department of Public Safety wrote in messages the newspaper’s request for police reports was “overburdensome.”
State police officials have declined to answer questions or provide further information about the incident.
The arrest warrant affidavit indicates the investigation had several starts and stops in the months after Serrano’s death as police tracked down at least five other people they believed were at the Chimayó house at the time of the killing.
Investigators in August found two people they believed had been inside the house when the killing occurred, according to the affidavit. The two were sitting on Serrano’s couch when there was a knock at the door and Serrano “opened the door and walked out and never walked back in,” both told officers.
The witnesses said three men walked into the house wearing masks and that one of them — believed to be Gallegos — washed blood from his hands at the kitchen sink, police wrote in the affidavit.
Police in November and December tracked down the two men they believe accompanied Gallegos that evening. They wrote in the affidavit the men said they had gone with him to pick up a television and a gate he had bought from Serrano.
One of the men said Serrano met the three outside. The witness said he punched Serrano after “he thought Chris said something disrespectful to Suave,” the affidavit says.
After they went inside the home, the witness told police, Gallegos rushed them to leave and drove away erratically, speaking to them “in a panic.”
According to the affidavit, the witness told police Gallegos said, “I had a pipe, and I just kept beating him with the pipe, telling him shut the [expletive] up or I’m going to kill you.”
The man told police Serrano “had no business getting hurt like that.”
Police did not find a metal pipe or any other weapon covered with blood at the scene, officers wrote.
Gallegos was on probation and parole with the New Mexico Corrections Department when the killing occurred after serving time for a previous murder. He appears to have been released from prison as recently as November 2023, according to the agency’s website.
He pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder and armed robbery for killing a man while robbing him of marijuana in Albuquerque in 2009. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison and five years of probation.
He also had past convictions of robbery and motor vehicle theft, court records show.
Gallegos was scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges Wednesday.