SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – The man accused of killing an elderly man in Santa Fe and taking off in his car had a lengthy criminal history. KRQE looks into how Zachary Babitz was out of jail in the first place.
Zachary Babitz, 38, made his first appearance in court on Tuesday after a string of crimes around New Mexico this month.
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“We are very pleased that he is taken off the streets and he’s back where he belongs,” said Chief Paul Joye for the Santa Fe Police Department after Babitz’s arrest.
SFPD said one week ago, Babitz killed an 83-year-old man outside the Best Buy in town and took off in his car. Babitz is also accused of robbing a bank in Albuquerque on July 31 and accused of stealing a car in Las Cruces before getting arrested. But, some are wondering why Babitz was out on the streets in the first place.
“This is a very dangerous person. Again, he should have never been out in the first place. Now, it’s our job to work with our partners in law enforcement and courts to make sure that we don’t experience this again and he stays behind bars,” said Chief Joye on Monday.
Court documents reveal in 2019, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office under Raúl Torrez, who is now the state’s attorney general, gave Babitz a plea deal for a series of crimes in Albuquerque. Babitz pled guilty to six counts of robbery, possession of a controlled substance, being a felon with a gun, and transferring or receiving a stolen vehicle.
The plea deal cut the 21 years he was facing to just ten years of incarceration. In the agreement, the state also agreed to not consider any of the robberies as “serious violent offenses.” In the end, Babitz was able to just serve five years with good time served. KRQE News 13 reached out to the spokesperson for the former DA and they had no comment.
There’s also questions surrounding Babitz’s parole after being let out of jail in March. Court documents show on August 1, 2024, the parole officer learned Babitz’s ankle monitor was tampered with. The officer found the ankle monitor in a trash can at a travel center gas station.
The officer then went to Babitz’s house but he was nowhere to be found. The officer called Babitz’s emergency contact and issued a letter to Babitz ordering him to report on August 6, 2024. Babitz never showed up and a major probation violation was filed.
“Our probation and parole officer followed policy when Babitz cut off his GPS ankle monitor. The officer immediately issued an arrest order and then submitted a violation report within five days. We are proud of our dedicated officers and law enforcement partners for doing everything they could to track down Babitz,” said a spokesperson for the New Mexico Corrections Department in an emailed statement to KRQE.
This crime and Babitz’s case has rocked New Mexico with one state lawmaker speaking out about it at a committee hearing calling this a failure of the justice system.
“When you hear the police and others saying this individual should have not been on the street… please don’t buy into the notion that the legislature is responsible for this because we don’t have a great enough sentencing,” said Senator Joseph Cervantes, a democrat representing Doña Ana County. “When you say we need to have a special sessions. We need to have more sentencing, we need to have more time on these laws. You’re shifting the responsibility from where it really belongs.”
Babitz is now facing a number of charges including murder. The state is pushing to keep him locked up until trial. The pretrial detention hearing is scheduled for next week.
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