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Clayton Garcia appears inset against the house where he used to live with his father in Albuquerque, N.M. (Albuquerque Police Department; Google Maps)
A New Mexico man allegedly killed his septuagenarian father by repeatedly kicking him in their front yard and then admitted to the brutal slaying when questioned, police in Albuquerque say.
The killing, the man would later tell police, was what the victim wanted – because it would send him to the Norse version of Heaven.
Clayton Garcia, 25, stands accused of one count each of open murder and tampering with evidence, according to a press release issued by the Albuquerque Police Department on Monday.
The incident occurred on Sept. 23 at a house on the corner of Madeira Drive NE in the Fair West neighborhood of the city, police say. Officers were called in response to a report that “an individual was on the ground and a man was yelling for someone to die,” the APD says.
The first officers to arrive said they saw the defendant in the driveway of the residence spraying his own feet off with a water hose.
Clayton Garcia then allegedly spoke with the officers – telling them that he had just been in an altercation with his father, Jorge Garcia, 74.
“He reached in through the window, said he was going to murder me, so I kicked his ass,” the defendant allegedly told police.
Jorge Garcia was found on the ground, partially underneath a vehicle, police say. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital and listed in critical condition. Late the next day, he succumbed to his injuries.
The defendant would later elaborate on the circumstances of the fight with his father in an interview with detectives, according to the APD. Clayton Garcia allegedly said the much older man had been “upset” with him for “being loud” after he came home from a party and was “yelling and screaming at him,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime. So, the son said, he decided to leave again.
“Clayton said that he got into the Pontiac and his father came out yelling at him,” the complaint reads. “His father told him that it was his vehicle. Clayton said that he rolled down the window a bit and gave the keys to his father. Clayton’s father then broke the window and yelled at him. Clayton yelled at him that he did not want to murder him. Clayton’s father yelled back.”
After that, the defendant allegedly told police, his father punched him in the face and pulled him out of the broken car window “by his shirt and necklaces,” according to the complaint. Then, the defendant allegedly admitted, he repeatedly kicked his father to death.
Upon falling out of the Pontiac window, the younger Garcia got up and kicked his father in the neck, the defendant allegedly said. The son said his father “went down like a dead fish,” the complaint says.
The son allegedly told police he saw his father “aspirating” blood from his neck. Still, the son allegedly said, he continued to kick because he knew the older man suffered from “multiple medical conditions.”
The kicking continued, the defendant allegedly confessed, because his father kept fighting back and he was going to keep kicking him until he stopped. When quizzed by a detective as to how exactly the 74-year-old was able to fight back, the son said his father kept trying to stand up like a “zombie,” according to the criminal complaint.
“Clayton Garcia said he started kicking his father, but did not remember how many times,” according to the APD press release.
Satisfied that his father would not try to get up anymore, Clayton Garcia allegedly went inside their shared house to get his father’s favorite travel mug – which featured “hieroglyphic designs” – and threw it at him “as hard as he could,” according to the complaint. The mug bounced off the dead man, the defendant allegedly said, so he went and retrieved it and set it down next to his father. The defendant then explained that if his father was going to Valhalla, he would want to take that particular mug with him, according to the complaint.
“Clayton also stated that he needed his father to die because dying in a fight was the only way for him to get to ‘Valhalla,”” the complaint reads. The detective later wrote: “Clayton advised that Jorge had been trying to fight Clayton for years and wanting Clayton to kill him so that he could go to Valhalla but Clayton never wanted to.”
Bernalillo County court records reviewed by Law&Crime show the defendant is currently charged with one count each of murder in the first degree, aggravated battery against a household member resulting in great bodily harm and tampering with evidence.
He is next slated to appear in court on Sept. 28.
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