Who is that sitting in my car?
Flea market patrons assaulted by auto burglar

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — For one local couple, a Christmas Eve outing to Gallup Flea Market nearly ended with a knifing.
Art Jones, 19, and Rebecca Manuelito, 17, went to the flea market Dec. 24, according to McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Joey Guillen’s report.

Manuelito told Guillen that she had forgotten to lock her door, and when the couple finished shopping and came back to the car, they saw a man sitting in the back seat.

The man, later identified as 36-year-old Laturo De-leioncourt of Pinedale, resisted when Jones told him to get out. The two men began fighting, according to the report.

Eventually Jones pulled the 170-pound De-leioncourt from the car, at which point De-leioncourt pulled a 4-inch folding knife out of his pocket. Jones said De-leioncourt swung the blade toward him but he dodged and started to run around the car. De-leioncourt chased him.

Soon Jones saw Guillen’s patrol cruiser and ran toward it, explained what had happened, and Guillen ordered De-leioncourt at gunpoint to drop the knife and get on his knees. Guillen describes De-leioncourt as having “a very strong odor of intoxicating liquor.”

Fortunately nobody was injured. De-leioncourt was booked at Gallup McKinley Adult Detention Center on one count of aggravated assault, a fourth-degree felony, and one count of battery, a misdemeanor.