Man strangles girlfriend and tosses her in truck, where she waves down cop, police say

Two men were arrested after a woman waved down a cop at a gas station and told him she’d been beaten, New Mexico officials said.

On Jan. 19, a woman waved down a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office patrol car at a Shell Gas Station in Sandia Park, according to the criminal complaint.

She told the officer her boyfriend, who police identified as Dereck Padilla, and his cousin Adrian Obledo, had punched her, police said.

She said Padilla then choked her and threw her in the bed of the Ford pickup truck, police said.

When the officer later spoke to Padilla, who was intoxicated, he initially claimed he didn’t know the woman and that she was just a hitchhiker before later admitting she was his girlfriend, police said.

Police said his cousin Obledo smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes.

The woman told the officer the three had been drinking outside the pickup truck on a mountain range near the gas station. But at some point, Padilla started punching her in the face and head before throwing her down the hillside and choking her, she told investigators.

Officers said Obledo also punched her and helped Padilla strangle her, officers said. She lost consciousness and was thrown into the back of the truck.

That’s when the woman started throwing items at other cars in an attempt to get their attention, police said. Eventually she was able to flag down the officer at the gas station.

The officer saw bruises to the woman’s neck, around her eye and to her shins but she denied medical attention, police said.

Both men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and battery, police said.

Sandia Park is about 20 miles northeast of Albuquerque.

This story was originally published January 23, 2024 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Man strangles girlfriend and tosses her in truck, where she waves down cop, police say."