Man kidnaps ex, then strips and beats her in remote desert, NM officials say
A man accused of taking his ex-girlfriend to a remote area and beating her is heading to prison, New Mexico prosecutors said.
Jacob P. Gonzales was ordered to serve 49 years behind bars in connection with first-degree kidnapping and other charges, the Doña Ana County District Attorney’s Office said in a July 17 news release posted to Facebook.
His attorney, Jonathan C. Miller, told McClatchy News in a July 18 email that, “Mr. Gonzales looks forward to his appeal.”
The attack happened in 2020, prosecutors said.
Gonzales “viciously assaulted his ex-girlfriend, confined her in the trunk of her own vehicle, and transported her to a remote desert location” where “he stripped, beat, and terrorized her,” according to prosecutors.
He then took the woman to an abandoned home, “forcing her to clean up, burning her clothing, and eventually returning her home, where she pretended to be unconscious to survive,” prosecutors said.
He was first convicted in 2021, court records show, but the ex-girlfriend was too afraid to testify and eventually “a higher court ordered a retrial requiring her appearance,” according to prosecutors, who added that the new sentence includes 10 more years than the original one.
“This case serves as a reminder that retrying a case, even when it feels disheartening, can sometimes lead to an even greater measure of justice,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Willson said in the release. “We are proud of our team, our investigators, our advocates, and most importantly, the survivor who bravely reclaimed her voice.”
Doña Ana County includes Las Cruces, which is about a 225-mile drive south from Albuquerque.
This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Man kidnaps ex, then strips and beats her in remote desert, NM officials say."
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