New Mexico “scam artist” to remain in jail until trial

By Faith Egbuonu

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — Bernalillo County Metropolitan court judge Yvette Gonzales ordered Steven Byers to remain in custody until trial on Monday, Feb. 12. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s office arrested Byers on Friday, Feb. 9.

Byers has been on law enforcement’s radar for decades. He was previously convicted of scamming people through home improvement fraud.

On Monday, KOAT spoke with a BCSO undercover detective following Byers attempt to escape hours after his arrest.

“We had him locked down hard enough to where he was looking at how many of us there were. He stopped immediately and immediately surrendered [on Friday],” an undercover detective with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s office told KOAT on Monday.

“So, unfortunately, it’s one of those persons that we’re going to have to take extra precautions on and have a heightened awareness of his ability to escape, not just his willingness, but he’s intelligent,” the undercover detective said. “He knows what we can and can’t do with regard to, you know, basic human rights.”

Byers was arrested less than 24 hours after Target 7 reported his criminal history of swindling New Mexicans out of tens of thousands of dollars for nearly 40 years, including three women who’ve recently come forward to share their story with KOAT.

Shortly after his arrest on Friday, BCSO deputies told KOAT he attempted to escape custody at a local hospital in Downtown New Mexico. He was handcuffed to a chair while waiting inside of the emergency room.

According to the criminal complaint, Byers stated he was having “stomach issues” and asked to use the restroom.

“Due to Steven’s comments about needing to use the restroom and even being handcuffed in front of his body, I did not believe Steven would be able to manage this and clean himself effectively. Steven has been compliant up until this point and had previously used the restroom to throw up from these stomach problems with no issues,” the BCSO deputy wrote in Friday’s criminal complaint.

Shortly after, the deputy stated there was a loud noise that appeared to come from the ceiling above the restroom and hospital room directly to the north of the restroom. According to the criminal complaint, the bathroom door was open, and the deputy found a trashcan turned upside down, with ceiling panels removed.

“Steven climbed up into the ceiling of the first floor and was moving from north to south and back and forth, looking for a way out of the hospital,” the deputy wrote in Friday’s criminal complaint.

“This is something we see often with people who learn to manipulate New Mexico’s system. They always set up their escape by asking for privileges, which is, ‘can I be cuffed in the front? Can you take my cuffs off? I just need to use the restroom.,'” the undercover BCSO detective said.

“In this case, he said that he needed the cuffs to be in the front so that he could use the restroom appropriately, and that’s fine. But unfortunately, we don’t treat everybody like they’re an extreme risk. We trusted that he was going to comply, and he was truly there, at the hospital, with a medical condition and that he wasn’t going to try to escape,” he said.

Byers’ charges and upcoming court dates: 2/15 Evidentiary hearing— Contracting without a license 3/11 Bond Arraignment — Contracting without a license 3/18 Status conference — Larceny and tampering with evidence 3/18 Status conference — Larceny and theft 3/18 Status Conference — Possession of controlled substance and drug paraphernalia

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