{"id":23907,"date":"2025-01-23T13:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T20:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-man-allegedly-steals-vehicle-with-baby-inside\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:43:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:43:57","slug":"farmington-man-allegedly-steals-vehicle-with-baby-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-man-allegedly-steals-vehicle-with-baby-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmington man allegedly steals vehicle with baby inside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Repheal
Repheal Yazzie, 31, of Farmington, reportedly stole a vehicle with a baby inside it on Jan. 20.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Farmington man with a lengthy criminal history is back in the San Juan County Detention Center after reportedly stealing a vehicle with a baby inside of it.<\/p>\n

Repheal Yazzie, 31, was arrested Jan. 20 and was charged with one count of second-degree felony child abuse and one count of a fourth-degree felony unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. He also was charged with a misdemeanor DWI.<\/p>\n

This was Yazzie\u2019s second arrest in a month. He was arrested Dec. 20 for being a felon in a possession of a firearm and negligent use of a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n

Yazzie was released on his own recognizance on Dec. 23 by Magistrate Stanley King after the state\u2019s system for measuring a threat to public safety listed at a presumptive release level of three. The highest level is a six.<\/p>\n

Yazzie was out of jail for one month when on Jan. 20 at 11:16 a.m. he allegedly walked up to a 2005 Ford Sport Trac parked at the Farmington Apartments, 1616 N. Fairview Ave., got inside and drove away, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

A 10-month-old baby was in the backseat. \u201cThe child\u2019s mother, Tericia Nakai, had been carrying laundry into the house,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Nakai contacted Farmington Police, and an office arrived on scene at 11:22 a.m., but stated that it was difficult to gather information from her, because she \u201cwas highly emotional and I had to calm her nerves,\u201d the officer wrote in the report.<\/p>\n

Farmington Police utilized the Real Time Crime Center, but the vehicle could not be located, until a San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office corporal saw the Trac traveling north bound on Browning Parkway, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

He followed the vehicle to Enzo\u2019s Auto Sales, 2833 East Main Street, where both the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Farmington Police were able to stop Yazzie 11:43 a.m. and arrest him, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe child was located in the vehicle unharmed in the car seat, asleep and returned to his mother on scene,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Yazzie, who reportedly was driving under the influence, allegedly told police that \u201che knew the baby was in the back seat and he was going to take it to the hospital,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Police noted in the report that Yazzie \u201cappeared to be grinding his teeth, moving his jaw from side to side,\u201d which is \u201cindicative of someone under the influence of narcotics,\u201d and they allegedly found a meth pipe with a \u201ctar-like residue in the straw,\u201d in Yazzie\u2019s pocket, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Yazzie reportedly stated that he had not had any alcohol to drink and did not take any drugs. However, he allegedly failed a field sobriety test, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

A warrant was obtained for a blood draw on Yazzie to check for alcohol and\/or narcotics.<\/p>\n

When police questioned Yazzie about taking the Trac, he reportedly said he had driven \u201cfrom Mikayla\u2019s house and planned to go to Carlsbad to see family,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

It was at Mikayla Christensen\u2019s house that Yazzie was arrested on Dec. 20, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

A Bloomfield Police sergeant reportedly called police to the home at 911 N. Tucker Ave., response to a gunshot being fired from the home. They contacted Christensen, who \u201cdenied hearing a gunshot or any loud noise,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Yazzie, who was standing near the front door, reportedly told police \u201cthat it was a firework that went off, not a gun,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Christensen gave police permission to search the residence, but Yazzie reportedly did not want to leave and stated that he \u201cneeded to go into the residence to retrieve some items and his bag,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Yazzie reportedly failed to obey the officer\u2019s request to leave and was placed in handcuffs. He then, allegedly told police if they \u201cwent inside\u201d they \u201cwon\u2019t find \u2018It,\u2019\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

When police did search the residence they reportedly they found \u201ca hollow-point bullet lying near the end of the couch closest to the kitchen,\u201d and an \u201cadditional 9 mm hollow-point bullet on the couch seat closest to the kitchen,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

They also reportedly found a \u201cblack handgun slightly wrapped in a microfiber towel,\u201d under the couch, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

When police arrested Christensen, they allegedly found inside of her purse a \u201c15-round magazine with 9 mm ammunition that goes to a Glock handgun\u201d with only 12 bullets loaded in it, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Yazzie has prior convictions of aggravated fleeing of a law enforcement officer, and two separate convictions of child abuse.<\/p>\n

After the motor vehicle theft arrest, the San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s filed a motion for a pretrial hold on Yazzie saying, \u201cthe State believes no viable conditions of release exist to ensure the safety of the community at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hearing to consider conditions of release has been set for Jan. 29 in District Judge Curtis Gurley\u2019s courtroom in Aztec.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

baby are safe; man had lengthy criminal history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78315,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907\/revisions\/78315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23907"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}