Slayings of homeless in Albuquerque show vulnerability of transients

The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The brutal slayings of two homeless men in Albuquerque underscores the vulnerability of transients, who prosecutors and police said are often victimized but rarely report the crimes.

One of the teens charged with beating the men beyond recognition with cinderblocks, bricks and a metal pole told police the trio had attacked more than 50 other homeless people in recent months.

But police said yesterday no one has come forward to report any potentially linked crimes, despite outreach to the community and the groups that work with transients.

Crimes against transients are historically underreported, Sgt. Simon Drobik said.

"It's a very deep subculture, underground kind of lifestyle. They use street names. . . . They are a hard population to reach. But they are victims, unfortunately," he said.

Meantime, prosecutors were preparing to seek first-degree murder indictments against all three teens, with the expectation of trying them together in adult court.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said the 15- and 16-year-olds have been charged as serious youthful offenders, meaning that if they are indicted on the first-degree murder charges they will be tried alongside the 18-year-old suspect in adult court.

Because the two are minors, a judge will have more leeway in sentencing if they are convicted. For adults, first-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence.

Alex Rios, 18, and the two younger suspects are charged with attacking three homeless men as they slept Friday night in a lot that was a regular camping ground for transients in southwest Albuquerque.

Brandenburg called it a "hateful act" against a vulnerable population. "It boggles all of our minds," she said.

Linda Fuller, director of St. Martin's Hospitality Center, told the Albuquerque Journal that violence among the homeless "has been happening for the 18 years that I've been here. But the public doesn't hear about it until somebody dies."

In June, a homeless woman sleeping on a sidewalk was struck and killed by a pickup truck that police said they believed purposely veered onto the sidewalk. The driver has not been identified.

Andrew Gonzales, homeless since 1996, said he sleeps next to a gravestone in a cemetery. "My friends . . . ask if I'm afraid to be sleeping there with all those dead people," said Gonzales, 59. "I tell them it's not the dead ones you have to worry about."