A Roswell man was arrested Monday, Aug. 31 and charged in the July deaths of two homeless men.
Sean Michael Caraska, 37, of Roswell was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the fatal shootings of Andrew Lujan-Huerta, 46, and Karl Affsprung, 59. The Roswell Police Department and Chaves County Sheriff’s Office announced Caraska’s arrest at a news conference Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Caraska was taken into custody on the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 31, when police executed a search warrant on his home in the 800 block of South Lea Avenue, according to Sgt. Humberto Loya of the RPD Criminal Investigations Division. Caraska was formally charged Monday night after a white pickup truck and a firearm associated with both shootings were found on his property.
Taylor Jaggers, chief deputy district attorney, filed a motion Wednesday to hold Caraska in pretrial detention, stating in the motion that because of the allegations against Caraska and circumstances in the case no measures would ensure the safety of the public if he were to be released while awaiting trial.
As of Wednesday, Sept. 2, no date was set for a hearing where a judge will decide to grant the motion to keep Caraska behind bars or release him amid court proceedings.
Lujan-Huerta was found shot to death July 14 in the Hondo River channel west of South Sunset Avenue. Affsprung was found dead from gunshot wounds on July 29 about 10 miles east of Roswell, a case that the sheriff’s office investigated.
When evidence linked the two cases, Loya said the RPD and Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 11 announced it began investigating the cases jointly with assistance from the New Mexico Department of Justice, FBI, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The investigation remains ongoing and Caraska is being investigated for possible involvement in other crimes.
He was not charged in another alleged murder case included in the Aug. 11 announcement. Kent Hoffman, 56, of Roswell was found dead June 14 under the Hondo Bridge on South Main Street near downtown Roswell. At the time police said that a laceration was found around Hoffman’s neck but did not disclose anything more about his cause of death. The FBI was also aiding the investigation into Hoffman’s death.
No motive has been established in the deaths of Lujan-Huerta and Affsprung, Loya said.
Jeneva Martinez, a local advocate for the unsheltered, told the Roswell Tribune at the news conference that she had helped Affsprung, who she said had a history of substance abuse and behavioral health issues, but remembered him fondly.
“He was rough around the edges, but still a kind man to those that knew him as a friend, knew that he was reliable and could even be a person that would even defend other people,” Martinez said of Affsprung.
Police have no evidence that the unsheltered status of Lujan-Huerta and Affsprung was a motive in their deaths, but Martinez said she noticed that Caraska followed the social media page for her group Food Not Bombs Roswell, a local group that distributes free food to the unhoused.
Martinez added that the deaths of Lujan-Huerta and Affsprung sparked discussion and worries among the unsheltered who were concerned they could be targeted. Because many of the unsheltered are the subjects of active warrants or have their own criminal histories, Martinez said they are often reluctant to go to police when they themselves are victims of crime.
She said after the first killing, Food Not Bombs distributed literature urging the unsheltered to not walk alone, let people know when they are going somewhere, to stay in well-lit populated areas and to go to the police station if they feel like they are being followed.
“And then we also told them to look out for one another,” Martinez said.
