Three arrested on burglary charges

Amid the graffiti burglars left on the walls at Tucumcari's Center Methodist Church on the night of Oct. 8 was a taunt: "You'll never catch us."

The Tucumcari Police Department believes it's proven otherwise.

Early Friday, TPD officers arrested two Tucumcari men and a juvenile and recovered many of the computers, electronic devices and even musical instruments stolen in that burglary and two others in Tucumcari on the nights of Oct. 7, 8 and 10.

The three burglaries included:

• the Methodist church incident on the night of Oct. 8,

• a break-in at the First Presbyterian Church on the night of Oct. 7,

• a burglary at the Arch Hurley Conservancy District headquarters on the night of Oct. 10.

By Friday afternoon, rightful owners had reclaimed much of their stolen property, Tucumcari Police Chief David Lathrom said.

Police arrested Tucumcari residents Sean Murray and Matthew Belcher, both 19, as they served warrants at a house in the 500 block of East High Street, Tucumcari, shortly after midnight on Friday, according to Tenth Judicial District Attorney Tim Rose.

Criminal complaints against Murray and Belcher filed in Quay County Magistrate Court show Murray and Belcher lived in the house.

A 17-year-old male juvenile was arrested at about the same time and placed in Children Youth and Families Department custody, Tucumcari Deputy Police Chief Pete Rivera said.

Rose said Murray and Belcher were arrested on felony charges of possession of stolen property. Belcher was also booked for felony resisting or evading arrest and possession of drug paraphernalia, a marijuana pipe, according to the criminal complaints.

Belcher tried to escape by diving through a window, the criminal complaint notes.

Murray and Belcher will be charged with burglary- and vandalism-related charges later, Rose said.

The criminal complaints also describe evidence that links Murray and Belcher toi a series of "joy-riding" auto thefts in the week before the burglaries.

The criminal complaint said police were led to the house by anonymous calls to Crimestoppers and other calls from citizens who reported residents of the East High Street House were trying to sell items taken in the burglaries.

Currently, "they're charged with offenses the officers could see," Rose said.

Murray and Belcher are being held at the Quay County Detention Center, jail records show.

Lathrom said the arrests resulted from "hundreds of hours" of work by Tucumcari officers, assisted by New Mexico State Police and the district attorney's office.

Information from the public through Crimestoppers and other communications, he said, was instrumental in the investigation.

"When the public gets involved, we get resolution much faster," he said. "We can't do it by ourselves."