Man found with dead body in Santa Fe hotel bathroom declared incompetent to stand trial
A man charged with murder after a decomposing body was found in the bathroom of a Santa Fe motel room where he’d been staying is headed to the state mental hospital for treatment following a Monday hearing, in which he was found incompetent to stand trial. Alvin Crespin’s defense attorney agreed with an evaluation finding Crespin incompetent.
Police arrested Crespin on Jan. 4 after they discovered the body of 50-year-old Virgil Tortalita in the bathtub of a room at the GreenTree Inn on Cerrillos Road, where Crespin had been staying for several days with the assistance of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, reports said. Court records show Tortalita was from Santo Domingo Pueblo.
Police responded to Crespin’s room after another man who had seen the body in the bathroom left and called for an ambulance, complaining of an anxiety attack, according to a criminal complaint. The man allegedly told police about the body, and officers arrived a short time later to find the room in disarray, as if a struggle had occurred. They found Tortalita’s wounded body in the tub, covered in wet towels and sheets.
It appeared as if Crespin had stabbed Tortalita and then moved his body to the bathtub, where he’d kept it for four days. He showed the body to at least one other person, prosecutors said in a motion requesting he be detained until his trial. Before a judge considers pretrial detention, Crespin, 46, will be treated at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M., according to testimony given at his competency hearing Monday.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/man-found-with-dead-body-in-santa-fe-hotel-bathroom-declared-incompetent-to-stand-trial/article_ca7ab378-5c3f-11ec-98bc-2334cb1999fa.html