New charges for a Storrie Lake murder suspect; alleged accomplice arrested
Las Vegas police arrested a woman outside the San Miguel County Detention Center in August, alleging she tried to sneak drugs to her boyfriend, an inmate charged with first-degree murder. Last week, prosecutors filed new charges in the case, and investigators arrested the woman again for violating the conditions of release previously set by the court.
Roger A. Tait-Gomez, 29 has been charged with five felonies related to the attempt to sneak drugs into the jail. Tait-Gomez already faces 10 felony charges in the shooting death of 16-year-old Adelina Tafoya near Storrie Lake State Park in July.
Skye A. Sedillo, 22, had been sought since Oct. 20 when an arrest warrant was issued following an investigation by the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s office.
After her August arrest, Sedillo was placed on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor, but she later petitioned the court to have the GPS monitor removed because she was unable to pay for the monitoring service. The monitor was removed Sept. 16.
The court ordered Sedillo to remain on house arrest, and she was to remain at the home of Tait-Gomez’s mother, where she’d been living. However, when an investigator with the DA’s office went to the home on Oct. 6, Sedillo was not there, and Tait-Gomez’s mother told the investigator Sedillo hadn’t been at the home since the previous evening.
Investigators from the DA’s office caught up with Sedillo at the home of Tait-Gomez’s mother Nov. 2, and she was arrested and booked into SMCDC. During a hearing later that day, Judge Christian Montaño ordered Sedillo to be held without bond, citing violations of house arrest and that she is “not likely to comply” with further restrictions if released again. Fourth Judicial District Attorney Richard Flores told the Optic escape charges could possibly be filed as well.
During a hearing Nov. 12, the case was transferred to District Court for trial, but a date has not been scheduled. Sedillo is charged with two counts trafficking controlled substances, two counts conspiracy to commit trafficking, one count bringing contraband into a jail and conspiracy to bring contraband into a jail.
Tait-Gomez has been charged with two counts conspiracy to commit trafficking, and three counts criminal solicitation to bring contraband into a jail. He is scheduled to appear in Magistrate Court Thursday for a preliminary hearing in the case.
Tait-Gomez and 31-year-old Nico L. Barela have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Tafoya, and face multiple charges for injuring two other teens in the shooting. Both men are being held without bond until trial, but a trial date has not yet been scheduled.
The foiled plan
A corrections officer at the San Miguel County Detention Center was approached by an inmate on Aug. 10, according to affidavits filed in San Miguel Magistrate Court. Police allege that the inmate, 34-year-old Kevin DeHerrera, offered to pay the corrections officer $450 to help him get drugs into the facility, saying that all the guard had to do was pick up a package from Sedillo outside the jail, then bring it to him.
The corrections officer contacted Las Vegas police and informed a member of the Region IV Narcotics Drug Task Force of the plan.
Sedillo arrived in a car later that day. She called the corrections officer to tell him she was outside, and from a window, corrections officers saw Sedillo standing by a silver car.
LVPD had not arrived at the jail yet, so corrections officers attempted to stall Sedillo, though in court records, officers said Sedillo was acting impatient and they feared she would leave.
Corrections officers called the task force officer to let him know they feared Sedillo was about to leave, and the task force officer instructed corrections officers to retrieve the package from her.
Sedillo handed the corrections officer a cigarette pack. Inside the pack was a sealed plastic bag containing 6.4 grams of heroin, 6.1 grams of methamphetamine, along with two cigarettes, a lighter and two injection needles, according to affidavits filed in Magistrate Court.
LVPD dispatched officers to the jail, and officers were able to stop the car before it left the area, pulling it over on a frontage road near the jail facility.
Others charged
To date, four people have been charged in the case. In addition to Sedillo and Tait-Gomez, prosecutors have also charged DeHerrera and 32-year-old Adam C. Bustos.
On Aug. 9 and Aug. 10, Tait-Gomez called Sedillo from the jail. Jail calls are routinely recorded, and those on the call are informed of the recording, but transcripts of those calls filed in Magistrate Court captured Tait-Gomez instructing Sedillo where to pick up the drugs, and how to deliver them to the jail.
During one phone call, Tait-Gomez directed Sedillo to the home of Bustos, and police allege DeHerrera can be heard on the call as well.
At one point, Sedillo handed the phone to Bustos and Tait-Gomez asked him to get the “black people and the white people” together for him, which police allege was coded language for black tar heroin and meth.
When Sedillo took the phone back, Tait-Gomez said, “So he’s going to hook you up with some stuff and whatnot…I’m going to need you to pull out the other $80 from the account because I need $500 total… Don’t worry. Mom won’t get upset. Just make sure you package it up real nice and good,” according to the transcript of the call.
Bustos is charged with two counts of trafficking controlled substances, two counts of conspiracy to commit trafficking and criminal solicitation to bring contraband into a jail. A jury trial is scheduled to begin March 16, 2021.
DeHerrera is charged with criminal solicitation to bring contraband into a jail, two counts conspiracy to bring contraband into a jail and two counts conspiracy to commit trafficking. He has also been charged with drug trafficking in a separate case after sheriff’s deputies located heroin and methamphetamine in a bag belonging to DeHerrera during a traffic stop on Aug. 3. A jury trial in that case is scheduled to begin April 19, 2021, and a trial in the jail contraband case is scheduled to begin April 20, 2021.
