The man suspected of punching his girlfriend’s young son Monday and stealing her car was arrested Thursday in Muscatine, Iowa.
Juan Bazan Agilar, 45, is charged with one count each of child abuse and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle.
LCPD investigators learned that Agilar was released from a local hospital Nov. 16 and intended to sell prescription medication Monday to an unidentified woman who resides on Colorado Avenue.
After driving away from the Colorado Avenue address at around 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17, Agilar began arguing with his girlfriend and allegedly struck her at least once. The woman’s 6-year-old son, who was in the back seat of the Plymouth Breeze, reportedly yelled at Agilar prompting the suspect to strike the boy multiple times with a closed fist.
After returning to the woman’s residence on Espina Street, Agilar allegedly got into a physical fight with the woman and her 16-year-old son. Again, the woman’s 6-year-old son yelled at Agilar to stop hitting his mother.
Agilar is then believed to have struck the young boy in the mouth, knocking out a tooth. Agilar then fled the area in the woman’s Plymouth Breeze.
Detectives received information that Agilar sold the woman’s Plymouth in Las Cruces and offered the buyer a bill of sale that indicated his address was in Muscatine, Iowa. Las Cruces Police detectives alerted police in Iowa to Agilar’s possible whereabouts, and the suspect was located and taken into custody on a warrant shortly after noon, Central Standard Time, on Thursday, Nov. 20.
Agilar is expected to be extradited to New Mexico to face charges.
Information from Las Cruces Police