Suspect in killing of Hatch police officer charged with open count of murder

Editors note: Overnight, ABC-7 reported the men were also suspects in the killing of a family in Pike County, Ohio. That information did not come from the Chillicothe Gazette as we previously reported. The information was unconfirmed. We apologize for the error.

UPDATE, August 13th, 2016, 3:08 P.M.

One of the men who Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Deputies say shot and killed a Hatch Police Officer is now charged with an open count of murder.

DASO officials tell Abc-7 Jesse Hanes, 38, and James Nelson, 36, are also wanted on murder charges in Ohio. The two were arrested Friday in Doa Ana County.

Officials say Jesse Hanes and Nelson were driving in a silver 1991 Lexus when they were pulled over Friday afternoon by 33-year-old Hatch Police Officer Jose Chavez. Deputies say Hanes was driving the Lexus when he allegedly shot Officer Chavez through the passenger-side window of the car as Chavez approached the vehicle during the stop. Officials say Nelson was sitting in the front-seat and a third male – who is no longer a suspect in any of Friday’s incidents – was in the passenger-side rear seat.

Officials also report a responding Hatch officer was finishing his assignment as a school resource officer Friday and reportedly spoke to Officer Chavez on the phone and said he was about to make a traffic stop in front of the Pic Quik convenience store on Franklin Avenue. The officer told Chavez he would meet him there but when the officer arrived, he reported seeing Officer Chavez at the passenger side of the Lexus, holding paperwork and reaching for his weapon. The officer reported he saw smoke and then saw Officer Chavez fall to the ground.

The officer then shot toward the silver Lexus before it sped away on Franklin Avenue toward I-25 and then alerted dispatch to an “officer down” at 3:42 p.m.

An additional Hatch Police officer, who was also en route to the traffic stop on Franklin Avenue, began a pursuit of the Lexus who was going at least 100 miles per hour. The officer eventually lost sight of the vehicle.

Sheriff’s detectives believe Hanes exited I-25 at a rest area near Radium Springs and got out of the Lexus. According to witnesses at the rest area, a man in a red shirt was seen approaching drivers, allegedly demanding keys to their vehicles. One driver, who was driving a red Chevy Cruze, was also approached by the man in the red shirt and was reportedly told to hand over his keys and go with the man in the red shirt. The driver gave the man the keys to the vehicle but refused to go with him. He was then reportedly shot once in the torso. Dispatch reported the time of that call at 4:02 p.m. The 36-year-old motorist at the rest area was transported to a trauma center in El Paso. He was said to be in stable condition Saturday.

The man in the red shirt allegedly took the red Cruze and sped away from the rest area.

At that time, a multi-agency response began in response to the officer-involved shooting in Hatch. Doa Ana County Sheriff’s deputies, who were alerted to the situation at the rest area, reported seeing the red Cruze northbound on N.M. 185. Deputies then coordinated the deployment of a tire-deflating device ahead of the Cruze’s known location. The device successfully incapacitated the Cruze, which eventually came to a stop when the driver allegedly crashed the vehicle into a pile of firewood at a residence in the 23000 block of N.M. 185.

Deputies surrounded the Cruze while the driver briefly barricaded himself inside. He then exited the vehicle and was observed to have suffered a gunshot wound to the upper right thigh.

The driver, said to have been wearing a red shirt, was later identified as Hanes. According to court documents, the wound appears to be self-inflicted. He was transported to an El Paso-area hospital where he remains as of Saturday morning.

A brief search for Nelson and the other passenger of the Lexus ended at approximately 5 p.m. Friday when a passerby alerted Doa Ana County Sheriff’s deputies to a pair of men in the 2400 block of Rincon Drive. Those two men were located and taken into custody.

Nelson was subsequently transported to the Doa Ana County Detention Center where he is being held without bond on a fugitive from justice charge.

The third male told investigators he had been picked up by Hanes and Nelson while hitchhiking. He is considered to be a witness in the investigation and is not criminally charged in any of Friday’s incidents.

Officer Chavez, 33, died following surgery at University Medical Center in El Paso just after 8 p.m. Friday. He was a two-year veteran of the Hatch Police Department and a 2013 graduate of the Doa Ana County Sheriff’s Department Cadet Law Enforcement Academy.

Saturday morning, his body was transported to the University of New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner for autopsy under a multi-agency police escort.

HATCH, N.M. – A man accused of killing a Hatch, N.M., police officer Friday is wanted for aggravated murder in Ohio, a spokeswoman with the Doa Ana County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ABC-7.

Jesse D. Hanes allegedly shot and killed the officer during a traffic stop Friday afternoon, sheriff’s deputies said. He is charged with willful and deliberate first-degree murder, with additional charges pending. Hanes was arrested in Doa Ana County along with two other suspects, whom deputies only described as a white man and a black man.

The Ohio-based Chillicothe Gazette reported that Hanes and one of the other suspects they identified as James D. Nelson are wanted for the fatal shooting of 62-year-old Theodore Timmons in Ross County, Ohio. Timmons was found dead July 25 inside his own home. New Mexico authorities have not said if Nelson was one of the men detained along with Hanes.

Late Friday, the mayor of Hatch identified the officer as 33-year-old Jose Chavez, a second-year officer. Chavez was shot in the neck, Mayor Andy Nunez said. Chavez died following surgery at University Medical Center in El Paso just after 8 p.m. Friday, the the Doa Ana County Sheriff’s Office said.

Medics worked on Chavez for about 30 minutes before he was airlifted to El Paso.

“He appeared to be in pretty good shape,” Nunez said.

Interstate 25 was shut down in both directions due to the investigation but has since reopened.

Kelly Jameson, a spokeswoman for the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office, clarified late Friday that it all started during a routine traffic stop about 3:40 p.m. in Hatch.

According to a release from the sheriff’s office Saturday morning, Chavez pulled the suspects over on Franklin Avenue near a PicQuik convenience store. It’s unclear what led the officer to make the traffic stop. According to the news release, a school resource officer Chavez called to assist reported seeing him at the passenger side of a silver, four-door Lexus. The assisting officer said Chavez was holding paperwork, but appeared to also be reaching for his service weapon. The officer said he saw smoke and that Officer Chavez fell to the ground.

The vehicle then sped away, leading law enforcement on a chase that at times reached 100 mph, according to Jameson.

The suspects then arrived at a rest stop near Rincon where, according to investigators, they carjacked a man. The man turned over the keys to his car but refused to go with them and was shot in the torso. His condition is unknown and he has not been identified.

Multiple agencies participated in the search which ended after spike strips deployed disabled the suspects vehicle. Deputies said Hanes, the driver, barricaded himself briefly inside it but the standoff ended shortly after. He was found with what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot to the leg.

The other two suspects were caught nearby. Charges against them are pending.

The Dona Ana Co. Sheriff’s office will hold a news conference Saturday afternoon. Stay with ABC-7 for updates.