CRIME
Taos County Sheriff's Office charges longtime suspect in trailer park double homicide
Affidavit remains sealed, leaving questions about how year-and-a-half-long investigation unfolded
Published
Modified
The Taos County Sheriff鈥檚 Office entered the Rio Arriba County jail on Wednesday to bring murder charges against Cesar Paz-Garcia, the primary suspect in the slaying of two women found shot to death at an El Prado trailer park in 2025.
Deputies served Paz-Garcia with an arrest warrant charging him with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit a violent felony and tampering with evidence.
The charges are tied to the deaths of Ashley Casias, 33, and Anastasia Romo, 39, of Taos, whose bodies were found at the Valencia Trailer Park on Feb. 24, 2025.
That same day, Rio Arriba law enforcement arrested Paz-Garcia in a separate killing, alleging he fatally stabbed 32-year-old Anthony Velasquez outside a laundromat in Ohkay Owingeh.
A key piece of evidence emerged during Paz-Garcia鈥檚 arrest at Ohkay Owingeh when he was found driving a vehicle belonging to one of the two women found dead in El Prado, according to law enforcement.
While Paz-Garcia faces murder charges in the Rio Arriba case, a Taos County trial jury in February found him not guilty in the nonfatal stabbing of a fellow Taos man at the Valencia Trailer Park in January 2025.
Taos County Detective Donivan Byers led the investigation into the deaths of the two women, but many details of the case remain concealed after Taos District Court Judge Emilio Chavez approved a motion to seal the arrest warrant affidavit Wednesday.
John Miller is the 近距离内射合集鈥檚 northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.
