Trial dates set for Storrie Lake murder suspects; new drug charge for one jailed defendant
One of the men accused of shooting and killing a teen and wounding two others near Storrie Lake State Park last year has been charged with having drug paraphernalia in his jail cell, court records show.
The new charge was filed Tuesday against 30-year-old Roger Tait-Gomez, who is currently being held at the San Miguel County Detention Center on multiple charges, including first-degree murder.
SMCDC corrections officers located a syringe in Tait-Gomez’s cell during a search on April 2, according to a statement of probable cause filed in San Miguel Magistrate Court. Corrections officers also located syringes in two other cells in the jail’s D-Pod during the search.
In November 2020, Tait-Gomez was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit trafficking, and three counts criminal solicitation to bring contraband into jail. According to police and corrections officers, Tait-Gomez arranged to have his girlfriend, 22-year-old Skye Sedillo, help sneak a package containing methamphetamine, heroin and syringes into the jail.
A jury trial for those charges against Tait-Gomez has been scheduled to begin Oct. 12 in District Court. Sedillo was also charged in the incident and faces the same charges. A trial date has not been set for her case, but she is scheduled to go to trial July 6 in a related case where she’s charged with escaping from house arrest. Sedillo was arrested in February, and remained in custody at SMCDC as of this writing.
Tait-Gomez also faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, two counts aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, three counts aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at or from a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence.
The charges were filed in July 2020 following the shooting death of 16-year-old Adelina Tafoya near Storrie Lake. Another 16-year-old girl suffered life-threatening injuries during the shooting, and a 15-year-old boy was shot in the arm. Three other teens — ages 14, 15 and 17 — were in the car during the shooting, but were not seriously injured.
Tait-Gomez and Nico L. Barela, now 31, were both charged in the shooting. Police allege the two shot at the car filled with teens because they mistakenly believed the car belonged to a rival drug dealer who’d stolen narcotics from their boss.
Barela faces the same charges as Tait-Gomez, as well as an additional felony charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
A jury trial for Barela is scheduled to begin Feb. 21, 2022, and is scheduled to run through March 4, 2022. A jury trial for Tait-Gomez is scheduled to begin April 4, 2022, and scheduled to run through April 15, 2022.
Tait-Gomez was arraigned on the drug paraphernalia charge Wednesday in Magistrate Court. A non-jury trial is scheduled for May 11 in that case.
