John Jefferson
Left: Zachary Babitz (Las Cruces Police Department. Right: Gordon Wilson (Obituary).
A man who was released from a New Mexico prison in March allegedly went on a dayslong crime spree that included killing an 83-year-old man in a Best Buy parking lot and robbing a bank and an Arby’s at gunpoint.
It began around 2 p.m. on July 31 when 38-year-old Zachary Ryan Babitz — still wearing his GPS ankle monitor — robbed a Wells Fargo in Albuquerque, according to police. Babitz then allegedly cut off his ankle monitor and headed to Santa Fe where he robbed and murdered Gordon Wilson, 83, around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 6 in the parking lot of a Best Buy at 3533 Zafarano Dr.
Babitz stole Wilson’s car and drove away, police said.
On Thursday, Santa Fe cops identified Babitz as the suspect and issued an arrest warrant for murder, robbery and felon in possession of a firearm. But Babitz’s alleged crime spree continued. He and a woman allegedly walked into an Arby’s in Las Cruces around 6:30 p.m. Saturday where he pointed a gun at an employee and demanded money. After running away, the couple allegedly forced a woman out of her vehicle at gunpoint. They sped away, but quickly crashed and ran, according to police.
Cops arrested Babitz but the woman escaped. Babitz is at the Dona Ana County Detention Center without bond awaiting extradition back to Santa Fe.
After police in Santa Fe identified Babitz as the suspect in the murder, Albuquerque cops were able to tie him to the Wells Fargo Bank robbery. They went to Babitz’s home where they found the vehicle that Babitz allegedly used to rob the bank. Babitz faces charges of armed robbery and tampering with evidence in that case.
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According to the New Mexico Department of Corrections, Babitz in 2019 was sentenced to 23 years in prison for robbery and receiving/transferring stolen motor vehicles. However, a judge suspended all but 10 years of the prison term and gave him credit for the 173 days he already served. He also earned 30 days of good-time credit per month which led to his release from prison on March 12 with two years of parole followed by five years probation, the NMDOC said.
“This is a gentleman who never should have been out, he shouldn’t be on the streets right now. He was sentenced to what I understand to be 20 years. He was put on parole, released early. He cut off his ankle monitor and immediately began wreaking havoc,” Santa Fe Police Chief Paul Joye told reporters.
Santa Fe Police Cpt. Thomas Grundler said it’s unclear why Babitz targeted Wilson.
“Even though the data shows in most categories of violent crime being down, the cold and calculated manner in which this occurred in broad daylight, in a public place,” Grundler said. “It shocks the conscience and as such, it causes the citizens to fear a little bit more.”
Wilson worked as an investment and mutual fund manager before retiring and working with a nonprofit archaeology organization for decades, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
Wilson wrote in an essay that he developed his passion for archaeology in grade school when he learned about Native Americans and ancient Greece and Rome. Though his career was in finance he worked on archaeological sites in his spare time. He found that finance and archaeology were often intertwined.
“Archaeology is, simply put, the physical record of thousands of economic and social experiments, from the size of a single pueblo to empires. And, we get to see if the experiment thrived or failed,” he wrote.
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