By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
A 48-year-old Rio Rancho woman is facing a third-degree felony charge after police say a dispute over signing over a vehicle title turned violent Friday, leaving her ex-wife with a puncture wound from a writing pen.
Rio Rancho police responded to the 3000 block of Southern Boulevard SE around 5:48 p.m. July 10 after a caller reported two parties fighting and a man brandishing a firearm, according to a Rio Rancho Police Department statement of probable cause. Officers detained the armed man, later identified as the victim’s son-in-law, while sorting out the scene.
The report states the woman and her ex-wife had arranged to meet to sign over title on a vehicle they’d purchased together. When the ex-wife wouldn’t sign without police present, the woman grew impatient, approached the car and reached through a window — punching and stabbing her ex-wife in the thigh with a pen, police say. The son-in-law told officers he was also struck during the altercation but declined to press charges.
Officers say the woman initially denied stabbing her ex-wife, claiming the injury happened accidentally when the other woman tried to pull her into the vehicle. But officers documented a bleeding laceration on the victim’s thigh consistent with the pen recovered from the suspect, along with small cuts to the woman’s own hand. Police collected the pen as evidence and photographed the injuries before booking the woman into the Sandoval County Detention Center.
The woman now faces one count of aggravated battery against a household member with a deadly weapon, a third-degree felony, and one petty misdemeanor battery count tied to the confrontation with her ex-wife’s son-in-law. An amended criminal complaint was filed Monday formalizing both charges.