Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Defendant leads police to missing the remains of the Valencia woman

It’s been three years since a family in the Valencian Community didn’t know while waiting for Rita Jaramillo to come home.

Late last month, the Albuquerque man charged with the murder of Jaramillo led New Mexico State Police agents to find her remains.

Rita Jaramillo

Arthur Lovato, 61, took her to an area near Interstate 25 and US 60 in Socorro County on October 26, where she tracked down Jaramillo, 49, of El Cerro, according to state police spokesman Ray Wilson did.

“MS. Jaramillo’s body was positively identified by the Office of the Medical Investigator on October 27,” Wilson wrote in an email.

Lovato agreed to go to the site in exchange for a settlement with law enforcement. On October 26, Lovato pleaded guilty of negligent homicide.

The settlement agreement provides for a six-year prison sentence, with Lovato being awarded the time he has been incarcerated in the Valencia County Detention Center since May 2019.

The remainder of the sentence is said to be suspended, and Lovato will not be serving a probationary period, as agreed, as long as he has led officers to the Jaramillo site and the remains have been clearly identified.

A hearing on the conviction of Lovato, at which Jaramillo’s family and friends will be allowed to speak, is not planned.

Thirteenth District Attorney Barbara Romo said the case prosecutors had against Lovato would have been very difficult to prove without a body.

“Also, our lead witness, Kevin Rangel, had serious credibility issues,” said Romo. “We had a hard time getting the Fed’s collaboration to get him back in the first place.”

Rangel was arrested in early June on charges of gun possession. The gun was a .44 caliber revolver that was allegedly given to him by Lovato. According to court records, Rangel said Lovato showed up at a house he was staying in in Albuquerque and was driving Jaramillo’s car.

Rangel claimed he could see the body of a partially covered woman on a seat and that Lovato confessed to shooting and killing (Jaramillo).

Rangel told State Police agents that Lovato gave him the gun and told him to destroy it, but Rangel kept it as insurance “in case something ever comes back to him”.

Arthur Lovato

Romo said Lovato’s attorney had also filed a pending suppression petition to suppress evidence found in an illegal search of his client’s property.

“The apartment was searched without a warrant. The application is still pending and there is a very good chance that we would have lost, ”said the prosecutor. “We had a choice of going to court and taking the risk of not getting anything.

“Honestly, if we’d gotten a conviction, there would have been no obligation (for him) to reveal Rita’s whereabouts.

“We were told by his lawyer that we would never find her if we got to court, and that’s probably true. Where she was buried … there was no way she would have been found. “

Romo said her office at least wants to shut down Jaramillo’s family and find her.

“Sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil to get something for the family,” said Romo. “This is not the solution we were hoping for when the case started.”

Jaramillo’s daughter Leslie Romero last spoke to her mother on September 20, 2018, but worried about her safety just days later when Jaramillo’s house at 6 San Luis Rey Place in El Cerro burned down.

Valencia County Fire Brigade Marshal Casey Davis said the fire broke out in the bedroom at the south end of the house and although he was unable to report the cause of the fire at the time, he called it “very suspicious”.

Romero said she and her family members were allowed to enter the house after the fire and found two tires that reportedly can be used as accelerators and make a fire burn hotter and longer.

In June 2019, Lovato was charged on five counts – first degree murder (corrupt spirit), first degree murder (willful and willful), second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and manipulation of evidence – and filed a plea of ​​not guilty.

After hearing his plea, the judge ordered that Lovato be detained without commitment.

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