Murder suspect tries to brawl his way past jail guards
A New Mexico man accused of fatally shooting five people has been caught on shocking jail video as he locked a guard in his cell and then bashed another with a flashlight in a desperate ploy to escape.
Damian Herrera, 21, was in the Rio Arriba County Jail when he persuaded a guard to come into his cell on July 15, KOAT reported.
“He told one of the guards that was on duty that his toilet wasn’t working,” County Sheriff James Lujan told the station. “So the guard went ahead to open the door to check the toilet. When he went in to check the toilet, Mr. Herrera locked him into the cell.”
Then the devious inmate sneaked behind the guard station and grabbed a flashlight from under a desk, the video shows. He hid behind a wall until another guard approached.
“As the guard passed the corner of the wall, he struck him with a flashlight, and then a fight ensued,” Lujan told the station. “So they had a wrestling match going on in the booking area.”
Another guard approached, and the two managed to knock Herrera to the ground.
Two other guards joined the fray — and one of them tried to stun Herrera with a Taser, KOAT reported.
Eventually, they managed to strap Herrera to a chair.
Herrera — who attended the University of New Mexico-Taos — is accused of fatally shooting his stepfather, Max Trujillo Sr., 55; younger brother, Brendon Herrera, 20; and mother, Maria Rosita Gallegos, 55, in their La Madera home, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
He later allegedly shot and killed Michael Kyte, 61, in Taos County and stole his truck before driving into Colorado and back, the paper reported.
He allegedly claimed his last victim, Manuel Serrano, 59, at a gas station in Abiquiú.
Cops finally caught him in a chase that ended when he crashed the stolen truck, police told the paper.
In an interview with cops, Herrera denied killing his mother and younger brother, and claimed he had killed his stepfather in self-defense after the man had killed his mother and brother, the paper reported.
He had also claimed that he shot the other two men in self-defense.
Lujan told KOAT that Herrera might be better off in a different jail, adding that he could be moved to Santa Fe’s state prison by the end of the week.
“I think it would be better for all of our detention facility personnel for the public up in Tierra Amarilla, and the county of Rio Arriba if we went ahead and had him transferred out,” he said.