By T.J. Wilham
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A convicted killer has allegedly offered up to $20,000 to get someone to kill Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, who is operating under special security precautions, including sometimes wearing a bulletproof vest.
Investigators say three men had been approached to carry out the plot, and police can’t find one of them.
Gerald Archuleta, the man detectives say ordered the hit, is a longtime nemesis of the sheriff and a leader of one of the largest prison gangs in New Mexico.
White has used Archuleta as a “poster boy” to lobby for a stronger three-strikes law.
Authorities have yet to charge anyone in connection with the threat, but security measures have been in place for months.
“We have taken this threat very seriously,” said sheriff’s Detective Matt Wolke. “This is enough money to make sure something is done.”
Detectives received information in February that Archuleta had put out a hit on White, according to a search warrant filed in District Court. It was unsealed on Wednesday.
The hit had allegedly been ordered some 18 months earlier, about the same time White was lobbying for a new three-strikes law. White wanted the state to expand the number of crimes that would count toward a mandated life sentence for someone who commits three violent felonies.
Archuleta has been convicted in three separate killings since 1996, but the threestrikes law didn’t apply to him because he pleaded guilty to charges such as involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
Archuleta was already in prison for one of the killings when detectives learned of the threat.
Detectives were told Archuleta had ordered one of his “soldiers,” Lionel Castillo, to find someone to kill White, according to court records, and that Archuleta was not “going to let it rest because it is very personal with him and the sheriff.”
Archuleta asked Castillo to pay the hit men with narcotics and cash.
Investigators later learned that Castillo approached three potential assassins and even bonded one out of jail so he could commit the killing, according to court records. Castillo paid some cash to one of the hit men, who recruited two others to help him, according to the search warrant.
“That raised our eyebrows,” Wolke said. “We knew then this was serious.”
Police believe one of the men had been watching White to figure out his routine “especially when he is alone.”
Still at risk
Before they could act, one suspected hit man died of a drug overdose and another was jailed on a probation violation. Police don’t know the whereabouts of the third.
“We are actively looking for him,” Wolke said. “The sheriff is still at risk.”
Police spent two months looking for Castillo, who was eventually arrested on an unrelated drug warrant. Castillo wouldn’t cooperate with investigators, but, months later, he was allegedly puzzled about why the hit man had not yet killed White “because he was bonded out for that reason.”
Castillo died of cancer three weeks ago while in jail. Wolke said police are considering pursuing charges against Archuleta and the alleged hit men.
White said he is not going to let up on Archuleta, adding that he plans to use the convicted killer again when he lobbies for a new three-strikes law.
“This is something that surely makes you more cautious of your surroundings,” he said. “There is no doubt I have had a lot of threats made against me. This one definitely was cause for concern. But I am not going to let Gerald Archuleta intimidate me.”
Copyright 2009 Albuquerque Journal