Grand jury indicts Timothy Bachicha in 2017 Albuquerque assault case

A Bernalillo County grand jury has indicted Timothy Bachicha on three counts of criminal sexual penetration and one count of kidnapping in a 2017 assault investigators believe happened in Northeast Albuquerque. The new case lands against a defendant who is already serving a life sentence in federal prison for similar crimes, extending a prosecution record that has followed him for years.

The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office said investigators believe a woman was sexually assaulted in 2017. The indictment keeps the focus on a stretch of violence that federal prosecutors said began in 2017 and involved at least four women. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bachicha abducted those victims, held them and sexually assaulted them.

Bachicha’s federal case moved quickly once it reached a jury. Federal prosecutors said jurors returned two guilty verdicts after about two and a half hours of deliberation, and the Justice Department later said he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. That leaves the state case aimed at a separate alleged assault, not a custody fight, and shows how Bernalillo County can still bring older sexual-violence allegations before a grand jury years after the original attack.

The new indictment also adds to a paper trail of earlier local cases tied to Bachicha. In November 2018, local reporting described an Albuquerque woman who said she was kidnapped, raped and held captive for 15 hours. On Sept. 24, 2019, Bernalillo County prosecutors filed additional charges in another Bachicha case.

For survivors waiting on stalled investigations, the indictment is a sign that a cold case can still move when investigators keep pushing it through the county system. Even with a federal life sentence already in place, Bernalillo County prosecutors are still testing whether older assault cases can be rebuilt, charged and heard in State District Court.