{"id":28095,"date":"2024-04-20T01:16:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T07:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-accused-of-killing-husband-admits-to-cocaine-use\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:20:27","slug":"woman-accused-of-killing-husband-admits-to-cocaine-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-accused-of-killing-husband-admits-to-cocaine-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman accused of killing husband admits to cocaine use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Lucia
Lucia Naranjo, 69, of Aztec, is accused in the Jan. 21 shooting death of her husband, Richard Patterson, 67.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A jury trial has been set for the Aztec woman accused of shooting and killing her husband, and Lucia Naranjo will remain in custody until the trial, after reportedly testing positive for drug use.<\/p>\n

Naranjo, 69, allegedly shot Richard Patterson, 67, in the head on Jan. 21 at the couple\u2019s home on County Road 3016. She was arrested and then released from custody to pretrial services, but on Feb. 14 tested positive for cocaine. This led to a hearing and a setting for a speedy jury trial beginning Aug. 7 in the 11th Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

When Naranjo was arrested the San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office filed a motion to hold her in jail until her trial, so the case was moved to district court, and a hearing was set on Feb. 5 in front of former District Judge Karen Townsend, who recently retired.<\/p>\n

Townsend decided to grant Naranjo a release from custody after the hearing, when Assistant District Attorney Keith Mandelski said, \u201cI don\u2019t believe she is a danger to anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Townsend agreed stating that she didn\u2019t believe Naranjo was \u201ca danger to anyone other Richard Patterson and that is what she\u2019s being charged with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naranjo was granted a release from the San Juan County Detention Center on Feb. 6. She was ordered to wear a SCRAM monitor and a GPS monitor under the supervision of Pretrial Services, whom she had to check in with weekly. She also was ordered to remain at her home between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and to deliver all firearms to the estate of Richard Patterson, court records state.<\/p>\n

Naranjo checked in Feb. 14 with Pretrial Services and tested positive for cocaine. A hearing considering her conditions of release was set for March 7.<\/p>\n

During that hearing, Bree Lee, who was monitoring Naranjo under Pretrial Services, stated that she told Naranjo she tested positive, and the woman reportedly told her she \u201cdidn\u2019t know what that is,\u201d according to the audio log notes.<\/p>\n

Then, in a phone call, Lee stated that Naranjo told her \u201cshe found her husband\u2019s cookies and stash,\u201d the audio log notes state.<\/p>\n

Naranjo testified during the hearing and stated that her husband \u201cfrequently used cocaine and I would ask him why and he said, \u2018because it makes me feel better,\u2019 and I wanted to feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to feel better from my husband being gone not to get to mourn for him, not to get to say goodbye all the things I\u2019ve done and impacted my family on both sides,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Naranjo said she was not able to go to the funeral services for Patterson. \u201cI thought it needed to be about him not me. I wasn\u2019t invited. I didn\u2019t know the time so I guess I couldn\u2019t have gone and I did not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naranjo told the court that she was a nurse for 40 years and understands that she should seek mental health services from Presbyterian Medical Services, because she has \u201cseen the big difference for the people who use those services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naranjo also stated that she was on Prozac before being arrested.<\/p>\n

Naranjo\u2019s mental state has been called into question when Lee stated that Naranjo\u2019s \u201cmental faculties vary\u201d and a behavioral health analysis has been ordered, the audio log notes state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my experience in my position, I have seen clients have improvements having a behavioral health analysis and receiving services,\u201d said Mallory Goddoy, program manager of pretrial services.<\/p>\n

Despite the mental health concerns, Townsend said she was concerned that Naranjo used drugs shortly after being told not to, when she was released from jail.<\/p>\n

Townsend stated that there \u201cis clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions\u201d of release would ensure compliance from the defendant, and she also was concerned about \u201cthe safety of others is she is released.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandelski brought up the fact that a preliminary hearing had not been set for Naranjo, so Townsend waived the preliminary hearing and set the case for a three-day jury trial beginning Aug. 8.<\/p>\n

Naranjo will face a charge of second-degree murder for Patterson\u2019s death and a third-degree charge of tampering with evidence in connection to her allegedly removing and attempting to hide white socks.<\/p>\n

Court records state that the socks had \u201cnoticeable discoloration marks which looked consistent with blood.\u201d Naranjo reportedly \u201cplaced them in the back of pants,\u201d concealing them, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

When authorities asked about the location of the socks, Naranjo reportedly \u201clooked with a blank stare for a moment and did not verbalize where the socks were. \u201dHowever, she later \u201cremoved them from the back of her waistband of her pants\u201dand turned them over, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Naranjo has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge orders Naranjo remain in jail until trial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80304,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28095\/revisions\/80304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28095"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}