LAS CRUCES, N.M. – A New Mexico man was arrested and suspected of domestic violence after his girlfriend asked her children to give their school bus driver a note saying she was in danger, police said Tuesday.
The bus driver called 911 after he was handed the note Friday morning, and police found the woman with multiple cuts, bruises and scrapes “consistent with her claims of physical abuse,” a police statement said.
Police later located Erik Alvarado, 40, and he was arrested on suspicion of three counts of aggravated battery against a household member — two for suffocation and one for strangulation, the statement said. Alvarado also faces misdemeanor counts of battery against a household member and deprivation of property.
The woman secretly wrote the note after Alvarado abused her overnight and took away her cellphone, preventing her from calling for help, the statement said.
Erik Alvarado (Photo: Doña Ana County Detention Center)
“Much of the abuse was done in the presence of the couple’s toddler and their two school-age children,” according to the statement.
In addition to battery, he’s accused of twice trying to suffocate his girlfriend with a pillow and a shirt, trying to strangle her and threatening to kill her.
Alvarado remained in jail without bond Tuesday and online court records didn’t list an attorney for him who might comment on his behalf.
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