Investigators waiting for lab results in July homicide

PORTALES — Investigators are still waiting on lab results before deciding whether criminal charges will be filed in the July 27 shooting death of Derek Garcia.

“We’re still sticking with the fact that anything’s possible until we hear back from what the labs say,” Roosevelt County Sheriff Malin Parker told The News on Tuesday. Parker said he “couldn’t really give ... an estimate” as to how long that might still take, but said it could be up to a year if there’s a backlog at the state crime lab in Albuquerque.

Parker said there have been no charges, arrests or other updates almost two months since the incident. Officials identified the shooter but said he told them he acted in self-defense. One other young man was shot in the leg and another stabbed during what Parker described as “this entire ordeal” of a brawl on the front lawn of Garcia’s residence on the 500 block of East 18th Street.