Man found with dead body in Santa Fe hotel bathroom declared incompetent to stand trial | Local News

A man charged with murder after a decaying body was found in the bathroom of a motel room in Santa Fe where he was staying is being rushed to the state mental hospital for treatment after a hearing on Monday, where he was found incapacitated .

Alvin Crespin’s defense attorney agreed with an assessment that found Crespin to be incompetent.

Police arrested Crespin on January 4 after discovering the body of 50-year-old Virgil Tortalita in the bathtub of a room at the GreenTree Inn on Cerrillos Road, where Crespin had spent several days with the support of the New Mexico Coalition to end homelessness reports say.

Court records show that Tortalita came from Santo Domingo Pueblo.

Police responded in Crespin’s room after another man who saw the body in the bathroom left and called an ambulance which, according to a criminal complaint, was complaining of an anxiety attack.

The man reportedly told the police about the body, and officers arrived a short time later to find the room in a mess, as if there had been a fight. They found Tortalita’s wounded body in the tub, covered with wet towels and sheets.

It seemed as if Crespin stabbed Tortalita and then put his body in the bathtub, where he had kept it for four days. Prosecutors said in an application that he had shown the body to at least one other person that he would be detained pending his trial.

Before a judge considers pre-trial detention, Crespin, 46, is undergoing treatment at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, NM, according to a testimony at his competence hearing on Monday.

The case lawyers did not discuss the details of Crespin’s assessment at the hearing.