A man identified as a UNM English professor and his girlfriend were found dead Monday in his home near campus.
Police are not reporting the names of the victims until they contact each of the victim’s families, but several friends of the male victim confirmed the man is a UNM professor.
Ralph Montoya, the female victim’s ex-boyfriend, is charged with two counts of murder. He is booked in Metropolitan Detention Court on a $250,000 cash-only bail.
According to the warrant issued by APD, Montoya walked into the downtown office of attorney Lauren Oliveros on Monday and confessed to killing two people on Sunday. He told Oliveros the two bodies could be found at the residence of the male victim.
When police arrived at the residence, at noon, they saw two bodies lying on the floor from the outside window. Upon entering, officers saw the male victim laying face down in a pool of blood with a gun aimed at his head.
According to the report, it appeared to the officers that the gun was placed there by another person to make it look like the victim committed suicide.
Officers reported that the female victim was found face up in a pool of blood, but no visible wounds were found on her body. The male victim is 54 years old, and his girlfriend is 43, according to the report.
Police also found two firearm casings at the scene, according to the report.
Student Felicia Lopez, in the professor’s Chicano Studies class, said her teacher did not show up for his 10 a.m. Monday class.
“He would tell us before if he was going to miss class,” she said. “He was always excited and passionate to show up to teach.”
Montoya, 37, is also facing four felony charges stemming from an incident in late-January, which include one count of aggravated assault, one count of aggravated assault on a household member, kidnapping and attempted burglary with a deadly weapon.
Student Oscar Ortega said the professor canceled class three times in the past two weeks because he had to testify in court as a witness to a domestic
dispute case.
“He talked about how concerned he was about the domestic dispute case,” he said. “He was constantly talking about it.”
Students in the professor’s class plan to honor him by wearing black wristbands on their right arms, Ortega said.
“It isn’t like we have a lot of Chicano Ph.D.’s,” he said. “The Chicano movement lost someone. We got hit. We are one less.”
