Farmington Man Arrested After Teen Party, Fake ID Found at Cannery Apartments

Nicholas Jones, 19, of Farmington was charged with three fourth-degree felony counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after Farmington police broke up a late-night gathering at the Cannery Apartments, 400 Nelson Ave., where a teenager had fallen and multiple underage boys were found drinking.

Officers arrived at 2:02 a.m. on April 5 following reports of a man falling from a balcony at the complex. Inside the third-floor apartment, they encountered five or six teenage boys and evidence of alcohol consumption. A 17-year-old told police he had fallen but denied the fall was from a balcony.

Jones also faces possession of alcohol by a minor, a misdemeanor, and possession of a forged or fictitious license, a petty misdemeanor. Investigators say he admitted using a fake ID to purchase BuzzBalls and Twisted Tea, then handed the document over to police. It listed him as a Colorado resident. Jones told investigators he had previously attended Texas Tech University and obtained the forged IDs through a male contact there.

The three felony counts carry the most legal weight in the case. To secure a contributing-to-delinquency conviction, prosecutors must show Jones knowingly placed minors in circumstances likely to cause delinquent conduct. The combination of alcohol he purchased with a forged ID, five or six minors present, and a reported balcony injury gives the state a concrete argument that the harm extended well beyond a noise complaint.

Jones was booked into the San Juan County Detention Center and released the following day on his own recognizance. A preliminary examination is set for April 15 in Farmington Magistrate Court.

The fake ID supply chain Jones described, traced to a contact at a Texas university, underscores how difficult these networks are to disrupt at the local level. At the magistrate level, the case could open a path to diversion or counseling, but the felony charges preserve meaningful consequences depending on Jones' history and what the April 15 hearing produces.