The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office made an arrest in the death of a man whose bullet-riddled body was discovered Dec. 6 at a Lone Butte residence that neighbors say had long been the site of illegal activities.
Manuel Rios Alderete, 35, was arrested Thursday and charged with an open count of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery and tampering with evidence, the sheriff’s office said in a news release issued Friday.
It’s unclear where Rios Alderete was arrested or how deputies tracked him down. Sheriff’s office spokesman Juan Ríos, asked to provide details on the arrest, wrote in an email Friday, “He was taken into custody at the sheriff’s office yesterday afternoon.”
It’s also unclear where the victim, Adan Ponce-Galdeano, 26, was killed. Deputies discovered his body in a garage Dec. 6 at 30A Arroyo Coyote Road in Lone Butte after the man had been missing since Thanksgiving Day.
While many questions remain unanswered about Ponce-Galdeano’s death, court documents released Friday describe possible ties to drug trafficking and an alleged plot to steal money.
A sheriff’s office detective interviewed Ponce-Galdeano’s girlfriend Wednesday, according to an arrest warrant affidavit for Rios Alderete. The woman said she took a Nov. 24 call from a man named Michael Sweeney and helped translate a message for her boyfriend: Ponce-Galdeano, who was at Sweeney’s home, was to come back to his house in an hour or an hour and a half, and he would have something ready for pickup.
The woman said the call was the last contact she, or anyone else, had with her boyfriend prior to his disappearance.
She confronted Sweeney on Nov. 25 at his residence after Ponce-Galdeano’s family members reached out to her because they hadn’t heard from him and were worried, the affidavit says. Sweeney told her he had given her boyfriend $15,000 and he left.
She went to Ponce-Galdeano’s residence the next day and found it had been burglarized. The affidavit states the woman reported the crime and submitted a missing person report with the Santa Fe Police Department.
City police were dispatched to Ponce-Galdeano’s home on Airport Road after a friend filed a separate report, according to the affidavit. The officers found the residence in “complete disarray.” His belongings had been tossed around, there were holes in the wall, air vents were opened and police found spent shell casings, along with live ammunition.
Two safes had been opened inside Ponce-Galdeano’s bedroom. Officers found a multitude of empty plastic bags, which the affidavit states are “often associated with packaging and selling narcotics,” and a written ledger containing names and “the money they owed.”
The sheriff’s office detective identified it as a “drug ledger” in the affidavit.
Deputies discovered Ponce-Galdeano’s body in the Lone Butte home after receiving reports of machine gun fire in the area. They spoke with resident Zachery Clough, his wife and another man.
Clough had put the Arroyo Coyote home on the radar of law enforcement in August 2021, when he was the subject of an hourslong search near the residence.
Clough told investigators Dec. 6 a man known as “Silent” — later identified as Zachary Rhoades — had threatened him with a rifle and demanded to use the home’s garage to store Ponce-Galdeano’s body, according to the affidavit. Clough’s wife also told investigators the body was placed in the garage by a man with the street name Silent.
The document does not state when, exactly, Ponce-Galdeano’s body was placed in the garage.
Clough’s wife “believed the murder was over a drug debt and was unsure of the exact location of the murder,” the affidavit states. However, it says, she gave deputies the address of a home on Paseo de Enrique in Santa Fe where she believed those involved in the homicide lived.
The affidavit states Rhoades forced Clough and his wife to drive him to Rio Alderete’s house after he disposed of Ponce-Galdeano’s body because another man had failed to pick him up.
It was unclear from the document whether the couple drove Rhoades into the dark Chevrolet Tahoe in which investigators believe he transported Ponce-Galdeano’s body or in a different vehicle.
The sheriff’s office began to surveil the home on Paseo de Enrique and had a breakthrough Dec. 12, according to the affidavit.
A statement of probable cause filed Tuesday against Rhoades says sheriff’s office investigators observed people tampering with a dark Tahoe, which then left the home. They started following the SUV, the statement says. However, the driver noticed he was being followed and fled back to the home.
Sheriff’s office detectives saw people attempting to hide the SUV under a blue tarp, according to the affidavit. Investigators also saw people moving items from the Tahoe into a trailer on the property where Rhoades was later found and detained.
“Next to [Rhoades] were firearms that appeared to be similar to the ones [Clough’s wife] described seeing the night he dropped the body off at their residence,” the affidavit states.
Rhoades and a confidential source were taken to the sheriff’s office for interviews.
The source told investigators Rios Alderete had arrived at his residence around Nov. 24 and was excited, saying “he had just shot and killed Adan Ponce,” the affidavit states. “The defendant was acting proud but nervous at the same time. The defendant claimed to the source he had killed [Ponce-Galdeano] because [he] had $90,000 dollars in a storage shed and he was going to steal the money.”
The source told investigators Rios Alderete asked Rhoades and another man to dispose of Ponce-Galdeano’s body. Rios Alderete also ordered “several subjects” to go to Ponce-Galdeano’s storage unit to find the money, but no one could find it, the source said.
Rhoades told detectives he got a call from Rios Alderete asking him to dispose of Ponce-Galdeano’s body. The affidavit states Rhoades was instructed to go to Sweeney’s home to pick up a vehicle with a body in the trunk.
Rhoades contacted Rios Alderete the day after he left the body at the Lone Butte home, asking to be paid, but Rios Alderete instead offered him the Tahoe.
“Rhoades was upset that he did not get any financial reimbursement for what he did,” the affidavit states.
Ponce-Galdeano’s girlfriend reached out to Rios Alderete after discovering her boyfriend’s home had been broken into.
“She knew from personal experience that Michael Sweeney, [Rios Alderete] other [Ponce-Galdeano] were frequent associates and they had met up at Sweeney’s on numerous occasions,” the affidavit states.
Rios Alderete denied having anything to do with Ponce-Galdeano’s death and offered to help her if she “ever needed anything.” The affidavit states the suspect also reached out to Ponce-Galdeano’s mother to offer his assistance.
The sheriff’s office executed search warrants at Rios Alderete’s and Sweeney’s homes Thursday. Investigators found “a large amount of blood … in the living room area” of Sweeney’s home, according to the affidavit.
“The padding and concrete under the carpet was still soaked in a large amount of blood indicating a violent crime took place here,” the document states.
A brand new pair of white Gucci shoes was found inside Rios Alderete’s bedroom.
Ponce-Galdeano’s girlfriend told police a pair matching that description had been stolen from her boyfriend’s home when she went to check the residence.
A sheriff’s office detective spoke Thursday with another confidential source close to Rios Alderete, who said they were at his home in the early morning hours of Nov. 25.
“The defendant and numerous others showed up very excited and yelling. The source heard subjects, including [Rios Alderete] talk about how these subjects were struggling to subdue [Ponce-Galdeano] when [Rios Alderete] produced a handgun and shot [Ponce-Galdeano] numerous times,” the affidavit states.
Rios Alderete was booked into the Santa Fe County jail about 4:45 pm Thursday, according to the facility’s online records.
The sheriff’s office was working Friday to arrest Sweeney.
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