By Wheeler Cowperthwaite
Special to the SUN

A Medanales man who allegedly burned down his father’s house, stole a firefighter’s truck after he responded to the fire, and then subsequently slashed a Tierra Amarilla jail guard with a pair of scissors, is not competent to stand trial.

District Judge Anastasia Martin ruled on Feb. 27 that Faustin Martinez Jr., 21, is not competent to stand trial in either the arson or the jail guard case after prosecutors and defense attorneys stipulated to a report finding he is not competent.

That competency finding has put both of his current cases on hold.

In the Feb. 27 order, Martin also found that Martinez Jr. is dangerous, ordering him to be sent to the state psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas to attain competency, and ordering per court rules, that he will come back in three months for a status update, and he can initially be held for nine months.

Martinez Jr. has been held without bail since his arrest in July, while his competency was raised following a preliminary and dangerousness hearing on Aug. 1.

In the July case, Martinez Jr. is charged with two counts of aggravated assault on an officer and one count each of aggravated assault on a healthcare worker, aggravated fleeing an officer, unlawful taking of a vehicle and negligent arson.

In the later case from Dec. 18, Martinez Jr. was initially charged with one count of aggravated battery on an officer causing great bodily harm and two counts of battery on an officer.

Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint in that case on Jan. 16, after Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Alexandra Naranjo held a preliminary examination and ordered him to be bound over on all three charges.

Martin wrote that she heard from Dr. Susan Cave, several law enforcement officers, and from a neighbor who testified about a prior incident in which Martinez believed his neighbor had one of his dogs, which “tends to support Dr. Cave’s testimony regarding the Defendant’s delusions and tendency to act out.”

Prosecutors previously tried to have him held without bail in 2024, after officers accused him of shooting his brother in the face. The bullet went through his brother’s eye and lodged in his head.

District Judge Jason Lidyard dismissed that shooting case following a preliminary hearing where he found there was not probable cause to support the charge. Probable cause is defined by the Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute as “a reasonable basis for believing that a crime may have been committed.”

A fire, a crash

In a previous court order for Martinez to be held, Martin wrote following a hearing, that Martinez Jr. allegedly burned down the house he shared with his father, fled the scene, threw a rock at a firefighter responding to the fire, fled from law enforcement after driving over spike trips and stopped after hitting a law enforcement vehicle.

Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Martinez wrote that at the scene of the fire, on July 16, he spoke to Faustin Martinez Sr., who said his son told him he burned his house down. No one else was home and his neighbor called him and told him about the fire. When he located his son on the highway, he confronted him and his son threw a rock at him and said, “I burned your house, you killed my mom,” he wrote.

The slashing

Deputy Hansel Felix charged Martinez Jr. with one count of aggravated battery on an officer causing great bodily harm and two counts of battery on an officer on Dec. 18, after he allegedly attacked three guards at the Rio Arriba County Detention Center.

Felix wrote in court documents that jail guard Brandon Redwine told him that Martinez Jr. was sit-ting by booking and three officers asked him to lock down in his cell. He refused “and stood up and threw the chair he was sitting on towards the three guards,” Felix wrote.

“Martinez then jumped over the counter by booking,” he wrote. “(Pedro) Antonio then jumped over the counter, and as he approached Martinez to secure him, Martinez swung a set of barber clippers, striking Antonio in the face, causing a laceration on the upper left side of the bridge of his nose.”

During the ensuing fight, he broke another guard’s nose, Felix wrote.