EXPOSE’: The Murder and Cover-up of a Small Town Girl; Tera Chavez (PART 3)

PART 3 OF 5 in THE EYE ON ALBUQUERQUE EXPOSE'

PART 3:LEVI CHAVEZ LEAVES "HIS" ISSUED APD GUN WITH HIS ESTRANGED WIFE

While an officer with Albuquerque’s Aviation Police, Levi Chavez, chose to carry a Kimber 1911 style pistol instead of the department issued Glock 17. After going through APD’s 6th Lateral Academy class and going through three months of OJT, Levi continued to carry his APD issued Glock 17 until about the patrol officer’s 2007 bid.  Thereafter, he carried his Kimber pistol. 

Under APD operation rules and procedures, only officers who are no longer probationary, or “P 2/C” status may apply and qualify to carry an approved non-department issued gun, such as, a 1911 styled gun.

A 1911 is generally configured to fire larger .45 caliber bullets and has a grip and thumb safety. In order to carry a non-department gun not only must the officer be non-probationary, but they must satisfy a list of department requirements. They must complete and pass a 100 bullet state regulated day and night qualification shoot. They must also have a form signed off by their entire chain of command: sergeant, lieutenant, captain, deputy chief, and chief detailing the gun and qualification scores. APD range staff must inspect the gun and document details of it including trigger pull weight. And to carry a 1911, the qualified officer must also take a half-day “1911 Transition Course” offered by APD range personnel. Then and only then is the officer qualified and allowed to carry his non-department pistol on duty and loaded with specific department issued ammunition.

Levi has said under oath both in depositions and in open court that he had approval to carry his Kimber but this is refuted by an absence of any documentation at APD’s range showing he qualified with the gun, he didn’t take the course, he didn’t get the form signed off on, didn’t take the training, and of course he was still a probationary employee.

Where was the APD issued Glock?

If we are to believe Levi Chavez’s version of the events of Saturday, October 20, 2007, his loaded and chambered Glock was sitting in an unlocked armoire at his and Tera’s home in Los Lunas. Levi Chavez left his APD issued gun with a person he stated during trial; was "bugging him." We are asked to believe that he intentionally kept a loaded gun that fires by the simple action of a trigger pull in an unlocked cabinet on a shelf that is about waist high and in reach of children. And that out of sadness and desperation Tera killed herself with that APD Glock 17.

With the children out of town and in Santa Rosa, Tera prepared for a weekend to put closure with Levi. She had told friends and family they were going to have one last go around and finalize details about co-parenting their kids. But once again, Levi did not fulfill his responsibilities and failed to show up Friday night for his weekend with Tera. He spent it with a girlfriend APD Officer Deborah Romero. Then after his Saturday evening dispatch at 1909 hours to the mobile home on Central SW with Russell Perea, Levi seems to have disappeared until Sunday morning when he wakes up in bed with Deborah Romero. But in testimony that is against her own interests, Romero states she does not know when Levi Chavez climbed in bed with her early Sunday morning.

Back in Los Lunas, Tera seems to have set the house up for a guest. She had called in sick to take the day off and spend with somebody. Perhaps it was for Levi like they planned. But when Levi once again failed her Friday night, perhaps it was for somebody else. A neighbor confirms that when they were backing out of their driveway Saturday they saw a marked APD police car also backing out of Tera Chavez’s driveway with Levi at the wheel.

But either way, Saturday evening Tera changed into her sleepwear, climbed into bed, and settled down to watch television keeping the remote control close by. No glass of wine nearby, no marijuana, no cell phone, no notepad and no Kleenex tissues. Kitchen organized with no mess.

The house was clean, and it was ready for the return of her children on Sunday, October 21, 2007. But by then Tera would be deceased.

During the night, the Glock issued by APD to Levi Chavez would be thrust in Tera’s mouth, fired and then left on her lap in an effort to appear as if she had done this herself. As we have said before; women do not shot themselves in the face or head.  The pain is in the heart and yes, being vein, they want to still look pretty.

But just as Levi Chavez had made mistakes and lied about being authorized to carry a gun when he wasn’t, when he lied to other APD women about relationships, when he lied about his whereabouts on duty, when he lied about work he did/didn’t do as a field cop, when he falsified APD documents, when he lied to his supervisors, and when he’d been so careful and thorough to show people where he was and what he was doing, there would be glaring mistakes at the murder scene on Ash Lane in Los Lunas….and there would be more mistakes by others sworn to uphold the law.