Corrales Police: Man set tractor on fire, threatened landlord with shotgun

Published February 14th, 2023 at 1:05 pm, Last Updated February 16th, 2023 at 7:00 pm

A Corrales man was charged with felony arson and aggravated assault after allegedly setting a tractor on fire and later threatening his landlord while holding a shotgun.

According to two separate Corrales police incident reports, Gary L. Clark Jr., 58, set a farm tractor on fire on Jan. 27 because he was mad at his landlord.

While he was charged with arson resulting in damages exceeding $2,500, a third degree felony, and criminal damage to property, a fourth degree felony, court records show those charges were dropped Feb. 1 due to “an insufficient complaint or citation.” However, Sandoval County Magistrate Judge Ann Maxwell-Chavez, dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled.

A fourth-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony still stands. He is scheduled to be arraigned in district court on Feb. 27, according to court records.

The police report says on the morning of Jan. 27 Clark emerged from the bedroom he was renting and walked into the living room carrying a shotgun. He asked the woman renting the room for his EBT card. When she did, Clark allegedly told the woman he was going to “f*** her up,” before leaving the residence in a white van.

The woman called police and told them that she felt her life was being threatened and she did not want Clark living there anymore.

While the woman said Clark didn’t point the gun at her, it scared her. She also showed police pictures of bruises she sustained in 2015 when she said he beat her.

“I’m afraid for my life!” the woman wrote in a statement to police. “I felt intimidated by him and his gun. I don’t feel safe in my own home.”

About an hour after Clark left the home, he returned to the home and police were called again.

Clark denied to police that he threatened the woman, but he was told he was going to be charged and his weapon was taken into evidence.

Clark left the residence but returned two days later. Police were called again and he left the property without incident.

Another incident report says that Clark admitted to police that he set a tractor on fire.

According to the report, the tractor was on the property because a neighbor doing yard work at the property had left it there. Clark told police he did it because the man who owned the tractor promised to trade him a pickup truck chassis for furniture. But the man instead sold the chassis to someone else, “so he got upset and set the tractor on fire,” according to the report.