Well-known Gallup locals leave community grief-stricken

It was a single vehicle rollover in the early morning hours of Nov. 10 that took the life of Corey Ritchie Joe, who was two days away from celebrating his birthday.

The crash seriously injured the driver, 32-year-old Gallup Independent reporter Maggie Adams.

Adams was traveling westbound on Interstate 40 in her 2006 Mazda when the accident occurred near milepost 102, not far from Acoma Pueblo, at about 2:17 am.

Joe, 25, played Benny Bengal, the mascot for Gallup High for four years. He was a graduate of New Mexico State University, where he majored in social work. He also counseled at Linda Middle school, worked with homeless...

Ivan Mike Largo was the customer from hell.

Employees at Fratelli’s Pizza north of Gallup learned this when he visited the restaurant about 7 pm on Oct. 17 and rang up a bill for $58.82 and then refused to pay for it, leading to a confrontation with the restaurant’s owner and police.

Emily Rohrbough, the restaurant’s owner, told police Largo presented a credit card to pay for the bill. The card was declined three times and instead of coming up with another way to pay, the customer became verbally abusive and called employees racist, saying they would not treat him that way if he was white.

As one employee called police, other workers tried to get the man to go outside so their...

ABUSIVE PARTNER



Prewitt, Nov. 7

McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Terence Willie was dispatched to a residence on the 1600 block of Highway 122 in reference to a domestic disturbance.

Metro Dispatch informed Willie the two people fighting were Sharon Leyba and Austin Leyba, 43, of Prewitt. Willie arrived at the residence with Deputy Johnson Lee and they found both people inside. Witnesses reported that Austin had been chasing Sharon toward the Prewitt post office, so Willie detained him inside his unit.

Willie made contact with Sharon, who said Austin had begun hitting her after she arrived home. Sharon was with her three-year-old niece when she got to the house, and she took...

Leland Begay

Oct. 29, 11:33 pm

Aggravated DWI

McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Roane Alan was dispatched to attempt to locate a black Chevy Spark after Metro Dispatch informed him the driver had been refused sales at the Sagebrush liquor store.

The vehicle was reportedly heading east on Highway 264. Alan was patrolling U.S. Highway 491 and headed north to locate the vehicle. He observed a car matching the description going south at the 4.5-mile marker.

Alan turned around and followed, noting the Spark could not maintain its lane as it traveled southbound. After turning on his emergency equipment, the suspect vehicle stopped at the 2-mile marker.

Alan made contact with the...