A previously unidentified man who allegedly helped two other people beat and stab a teenager six months ago over a marijuana deal gone bad has been identified and charged by authorities, according to court records.
Benito Santoyo, 28, of Carbondale faces the same felony charges of burglary and assault as the other two defendants in the case, Lily Snyder and Israel Carreno, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed last week in Pitkin County District Court.
The man who was stabbed — 18-year-old William Morris of Carbondale — also has been separately charged with felony marijuana possession after Pitkin County sheriff’s deputies found more than 12 ounces of the drug in his car while investigating his assault, according to previously filed court records.
Deputies were called to Morris’ Carbondale home July 16 at 9:30 p.m. after a neighbor called 911 to report that Morris had been hit on the head, possibly with a pipe. Morris’ head and face were almost completely covered in blood when deputies arrived.
He later told deputies that he’d been in his front yard when three vehicles arrived. Some of the occupants exited the car and attacked Morris with a metal pipe or brass knuckles, according to court records. At one point, he said he was hit in the back of the head and began to lose consciousness before running into his home to escape the assailants.
However, Snyder, Carreno and the man recently identified as Santoyo then allegedly forced their way into the home, pinned down Morris on a couch and beat him. Snyder allegedly hit him with brass knuckles, while Carreno allegedly stabbed him with a screwdriver and Santoyo hit him in the head with a pipe or baton, according to court records.
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After speaking with his son, Morris’ father told deputies the teen may have stolen the marijuana deputies found in his car after he was unsatisfied with the quality of marijuana he’d purchased.
Snyder and Carreno were arrested in August and September respectively and have appeared in District Court in Aspen since then. Santoyo appeared in Pitkin County District Court on Monday for the first time, where District Judge Chris Seldin ordered him held in lieu of a $2,500 bond.
A Pitkin County sheriff’s investigator tracked Santoyo to a 7-Eleven convenience store in Basalt in October where he was working, according to his arrest warrant affidavit. The investigator asked Santoyo if he was present at the assault for which Snyder and Carreno had been arrested.
“I don’t have any comment on that,” Santoyo told him, according to the affidavit. “If you have any further questions you have to go through my lawyer.”
Santoyo faces one count of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree burglary, one count of second-degree assault and possible violent crime sentence enhancements.