Survivor: Teens Giggled as They Beat Homeless Men

Bond set at $5M for NM trio accused of killing 2
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 22, 2014 1:36 AM CDT
Survivor: Teens Giggled as They Beat Homeless Men
Bedding, clothing, and broken glass litter a homeless encampment in Albuquerque where three teenagers are accused of fatally beating two homeless men.    (AP Photo/Jeri Clausing)

Three teenagers in Albuquerque accused of beating two homeless men to death acted like the attack was hilarious, says a man who escaped. "They were giggling and laughing at us, mocking us, calling us homeless," the victim—who says the group was just "quietly sleeping and watching the night skies" in a vacant lot when the teens attacked—tells NBC. "I said, 'I don't know why you guys are bothering us. We didn't do nothing to you guys.'" He says the trio chased after him as he ran away, but that they then returned to the two men. "They were real cowards," he says. Police say the teens have confessed to using fists, bricks, sticks, and a metal pole to beat the men in an attack that lasted up to an hour.

The three—Alex Rios, 18; Nathaniel Carillo, 16; and Gilbert Tafoya, 15—have been charged with murder and are being held on $5 million bonds. The two men were beaten so badly they were unrecognizable, but an associate tells the Albuquerque Journal that they were Navajo like himself and that he knew them as "Coyboy" and "Yazzie." Police believe the teens are behind as many as 50 attacks on homeless people in recent months. Tafoya's father says he's horrified by the allegations—especially because his own family had once been homeless. "It's awful to know and understand your son could do something like that," he says. "He knows what he did, and now he's got to pay for what he did." (More Albuquerque stories.)

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