Anna Bound And Gagged

Teens indicted in attacks at CYFD center

LAS CRUCES - Five teenagers have been indicted in separate attacks at a juvenile detention center that left a fellow detainee beaten unconscious in one incident and a female officer strangled and tied up in a closet during another.

In the second incident, two of the teens ended up escaping the J. Paul Taylor Center, west of Las Cruces.

A Do-a Ana County grand jury indicted Jesus Manuel Loera, 18, of Anthony, N.M., and Joshua Hernandez, 16, of Mesquite, N.M., on charges of first-degree kidnapping, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, aggravated escape from CYFD custody and conspiracy.

They also separately indicted Bobby Aaron Torres and Marquise Elizondo, both 16-year-old Carlsbad natives, and Kino Jay Rodriguez, 16, of Deming on charges of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and conspiracy in the earlier attack.

Enrique Knell, the spokesman for the Children, Youth and Families Department, which runs the detention center, said the department's investigations into the two incidents at the J. Paul Taylor Center are ongoing.

"CYFD is enhancing the security at the facility and reviewing all procedures," Knell said Tuesday. "We are also hiring 10 additional security staff and beefing up operations at the facility. The new director of CYFD's Juvenile Justice Services Division, which oversees J. Paul Taylor, is working closely with Superintendent (Jean) Tomlinson, Secretary Yolanda Deines, and other staff, to review and implement improvements at the facility. This facility has to be safe, for the staff who work there, for the residents in the facility, and for people in Do-a Ana County. It is one of our top priorities."

After being let out of a dorm to use the bathroom, Loera and Hernandez allegedly overpowered the officer, strangled her - both manually and then by a cord - took her keys, escaped out the back of the facility, climbed over a fence and fled around midnight on June 28, according to New Mexico State Police and court documents. The female officer was left unconscious and awoke "bound and gagged in a closet," according to indictment paperwork.

Just two days earlier, the teens from Carlsbad and Deming had allegedly "kicked, punched and body slammed" another detainee, "even after he was down and in and out of unconsciousness," leaving the boy with "multiple facial fractures," according to their indictment paperwork.

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