By Roger Lanse
At the May 8, 2023, Bayard City Council meeting, Bayard City Councilor Frances Gonzales reported that someone had attempted to break into her home on Bard Street on May 7, at about 3 a.m. At the meeting, Bayard Police Department Chief Hector Carrillo assigned the investigation of the crime to a BPD officer. Gonzales told the officer she would call the next day to arrange a time when the officer could come to her residence. When Gonzales had not contacted the Grant County Regional Dispatch Authority to report the attempted break-in, BPD officers went to her residence at about 2:16 p.m. on May 9. They knocked several times, the report said, with no answer.
At about 4:10 p.m., officers returned to Gonzales' home, a BPD incident report stated, and made contact with her. She told the officers suspects had attempted to make entry into her home through the back door, then through all the doors and windows of the residence. Officers walked through the property, specifically under each of the doors and windows that were reported by Gonzales where the suspected illegal entry was attempted. All areas under the windows and around the doors and porch consisted of dirt with a few weeds, the report stated. Officers could find no shoe prints in any of the dirt patches under the windows, or along the fence line, or in the backyard, although the report stated the officers could readily see their own prints.
Gonzales told the officers she did not call 911 to report the attempted break-in at the time because her internet provider was working on the system that evening and she had received notice from the provider there was going to be an outage in her area. However, the report said, her internet provider was contacted and stated there were no outages in Gonzales' area the night in question. Neighbors also said they received no notices about a planned outage, their internet service had not been affected, and their security cameras showed nothing, the night of the 7th, that would have triggered them to activate.
The internet provider also disclosed the last outage at Gonzales' address occurred in April 2023. According to the provider's records, the report said, Gonzales' alarm was not triggered at the time the break-in was alleged to have occurred.
An arrest warrant was issued June 6, 2023, for Gonzales, charged with making a false report of a violation, a misdemeanor. She was arrested that day and released on her own recognizance by Judge Hector Grijalva.
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On May 14, 2023, Selina Crespin, 54, of Bayard, reported to the Grant County Regional Dispatch Authority, at 6:37 p.m., that she heard two shots fired, which she thought came from her neighbor's direction. According to a Bayard Police Department incident report, after investigating officers determined the shots were not from a vehicle backfiring, officers listened to Crespin's phone which had an audio recording of two sounds like gunshots. Officers walked the property including the perimeter of the backyard without observing any bullet holes.
Officers then viewed the video on Crespin's phone, which they had not focused on before, the report stated, because the officer originally had been holding it close to the ear to hear the gunshot sounds. Officers noticed the first shot was not as loud as the second and they could hear sounds like a brass case falling and hitting something. Also, Crespin seemed to jerk as the second shot is heard "as though she is firing the weapon."
The video was shown to the officer's captain and to Chief Hector Carrillo. According to the report, all agreed Crespin did shoot the firearm.
Crespin was charged with making a false report of a violation, a misdemeanor, and negligent use of a deadly weapon, a petty misdemeanor. She was arrested on June 6, 2023, and released on her own recognizance, June 7, by Judge Hector Grijalva.