A New Mexico man is charged with murder after allegedly beheading a man and playing soccer with his head in a public park. Despite the beheading, police say the victim’s body had been mutilated elsewhere.
Man charged with murder after decapitating man and playing “soccer with head”
Joel Arcinega-Sáenz, 25, is charged with the first-degree murder of James Garcia, 51, in Apodaca Park by Las Cruces authorities over the weekend.
The defendant is currently being held without bond. According to court documents obtained by KTSM, an NBC affiliate in El Paso, Texas, he was discovered by the Las Cruces Police Department on Sunday night.
In addition to the decapitation, police say the victim’s body had been further mutilated; it was riddled with stitches and the middle finger of his right hand had also been removed.
Arcinega-Sáenz was arrested shortly thereafter, without incident, and the vicious crime was allegedly sustained.
According to a statement quoted by a television station, he committed the murder in retaliation for Garcia allegedly raping his wife four years ago.
Arciniega-Sáenz went on to say that he, his wife and the murdered man were together days earlier and when he woke up, García had left and stolen all his belongings, according to police.
The defendant allegedly said he confronted Garcia in the park, took a knife from him, stabbed him to death, decapitated him and” then started playing soccer with his head.”
The defendant became an immediate suspect in the murder after officers responding to reports of a body lying on the ground allegedly found him with “significant blood stains” on his clothing and saw, “a bloody knife near where he sat.”
In an update, police realized that Garcia’s cause of death was likely from “multiple stab wounds.”
