Murder suspect Durante back in police custody

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Murder suspect Kenneth Durante was back in county jail Wednesday night.

State police, along with officials for the McKinley County District Attorney's Office, arrested Durante at 4:40 p.m. Wednesday without incident for violating his house arrest and talking to witnesses in violation of his terms of release.

Durante, 48, is charged with murder and tampering with evidence in the death last September of Felizia Hope Penaloza. The teen's body was found under a bridge northwest of Gallup. Co-defendant Joseph Evans, 30, also faces murder, kidnapping and tampering with evidence charges in the teen's death.

Durante was released Sept. 15 on $250,000 surety bond paid by his parents who put up some of their property but under certain restrictions. He was under house arrest, had to wear electronic ankle bracelets and was told to have no contact with witnesses who could be called in the trial.

After Durante's rearrest, Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Calligan said that his office had already begun closely monitoring Durante's whereabouts through satellite readings. Law enforcement officials discovered that Durante was straying from his house and, at times, was going to the house of his girlfriend, who is one of the witnesses the prosecutor's office expects to call at his trial.

"We didn't arrest him for a minor infraction of the judge's orders," Calligan said. Instead, there had been a number of flagrant violations.

Even though he had violated the terms of his release, the surety bond was not forfeited since he was rearrested and is now back in jail, Calligan said.

However, he is back to the no-bail conditions that kept him in jail for more than a year while awaiting DNA results and a new hearing will have to take place to determine if he will be released again on bond, Calligan said.