Defendant in case of Lone Butte body takes deal, agrees to testify against 4 others

Jun. 13—One of five people charged with murder in the 2022 death of a man whose body was found in Lone Butte has agreed to testify against his co-defendants as part of a plea deal.

Under the agreement with prosecutors, Edgar Herrera, 32, must testify he witnessed four other men kill 26-year-old Adan Ponce-Galdeano at a Santa Fe home on Thanksgiving Day and then helped move the man's body and clean up the crime scene.

Authorities have said Ponce-Galdeano was shot and suffocated and then rolled up in a comforter and stashed in a garage in Lone Butte, a community south of the city, in a killing that appeared to be tied to drug trafficking. His body was found at the residence in early December 2022.

Herrera, 32, was arrested in January 2023 — the last of the five murder suspects to be taken into custody. The District Attorney's Office initially charged him with first- and second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, armed robbery and tampering with evidence but have since agreed to downgrade his charges in exchange for his testimony.

The plea agreement calls for Herrera to plead guilty to two counts each of tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence.

The original charges exposed Herrera to a sentence that would have left him incarcerated for the rest of his life. Under the terms of the agreement, however, he faces a possible prison term of up to nine years at his sentencing, which likely won't be held until after he testifies against his co-defendants.

In his written plea agreement, Herrera says he was in the home of co-defendant Michael Sweeney during Ponce-Galdeano's death and saw Sweeney give guns to fellow co-defendants Angelo Martinez and Raul Rodriguez-Valencia.

"I further admit I witnessed Manuel Rodrigo Rios-Alderete, Michael Sweeney, Angelo Martinez, and Raul Rodriguez-Valencia each participate in the murder of [Ponce-Galdeano]," Herrera writes in the plea, which state District Judge T. Glenn Ellington accepted at a hearing last month.

According to the agreement, Herrera also admits he acted with Martinez to "help dispose or hide the body," and to purchase "cleaning products or cleaning of the homicide scene."

David Foster, an attorney for Rodriguez-Valencia, declined to comment Thursday. Attorneys for the other defendants did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Herrera has been in jail since his arrest. His defense attorney had requested his release, but Ellington ordered him held without bond after prosecutors argued he was dangerous and had a history of failing to appear for court.

Herrera's attorney, Michael Rosenfield, filed a motion May 23, two days after Herrera signed the plea, asking the court to consider releasing him with a GPS monitor while he's waiting to testify in the trials of his co-defendants, set to begin in August.

Rosenfield argued during a hearing Tuesday he thought Herrera would do well on the outside, given his recent agreement with the state.

"He really has every incentive to cooperate and show the court he is eligible for a sentence reduction based on his cooperation and will show the court he is committed to changing his life and being a productive citizen," Rosenfield said.

The attorney said Herrera is "not doing all that well" in custody.

"I can barely recognize him. He's gained 70 or 80 pounds since he was incarcerated about 17 months ago," Rosenfield said.

The District Attorney's Office opposed Herrera's release, and Ellington denied the motion Tuesday, saying he felt Herrera would face too great a temptation to flee.

As for the weight gain, the judge said he wondered if it might be due to the lack of daily drug use and more regular meals.

Criminal complaints and police affidavits used as the basis to obtain arrest warrants in the case indicate several people participated in the killing and cover-up, which investigators suspect was related to drug debts.

Court documents say Herrera and several others were at Sweeney's home "using drugs all day," prior to the killing.

According to an affidavit, a confidential source told police Sweeney invited Ponce-Galdeano to his home in Santa Fe to talk to him about a debt Sweeney owed. When the source arrived, he saw "numerous other individuals" throughout the house. Sweeney had given the men guns and told them to hide.

An argument broke out, according to the affidavit, and after it became heated, the other men stationed around the house revealed themselves.

Ponce-Galdeano tried to flee the residence, fighting his way around the house with the others, including Martinez, chasing him, the affidavit says.

The source was trying to calm things down when Alderete, Sweeney, Martinez and another man began shooting, the affidavit says.

Ponce-Galdeano was shot numerous times, the affidavit says, but was still alive as the assailants went through his pockets. Rios Alderete ordered Martinez and Herrera to get rid of Ponce-Galdeano's body, the source told detectives, adding Martinez killed Ponce-Galdeano by suffocating him with a plastic bag.

The two men enlisted the help of several others to load the body into an SUV, according to a criminal complaint.

A sixth suspect, Zachary Rhoades, was accused of taking the body to a home on Arroyo Coyote in Lone Butte and forcing the residents, at gunpoint, to allow him to leave the body in the garage. He also was accused of forcing the couple to give him a ride to Rios Alderete's home afterward.

It was unclear whether they drove him in the Chevrolet Tahoe authorities believe was used to transport Ponce-Galdeano's body or if someone else had driven away in the SUV.

The sprawling case also saw the arrests of two other people suspected of trying to help cover up the killing.

Rios Alderete's onetime girlfriend, LeAmber Boyd, and roommate, Cristian Javier 'Javi' Diaz Cordero, were charged in January 2023 with one count each of tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence, according to court documents.

Boyd was accused of helping clean up Sweeney's bloodied home in exchange for 150 fentanyl pills.

Cordero was supposed to pick up Rhoades after he left the body in Lone Butte, investigators alleged, but Cordero didn't show up.

Police discovered the body less than two weeks later, the complaint says, after responding to a call reporting shots fired near the home.