46-Year-Old Homeless Man Faces Charges for Attacking Victim with Bat in Alamogordo

Alamogordo – A 46-year-old homeless man, Esteban B. Ojeda Jr., has been charged with aggravated battery after allegedly attacking another man with a baseball bat on Tuesday, Dec. 24, in Alamogordo. Ojeda was arrested and taken into custody at the Otero County Detention Center, where he awaits his court appearance. He faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and a bench warrant for failure to comply with conditions of release.

According to Alamogordo Police, officers responded to a welfare check at an AutoZone parking lot located at 215 N. White Sands Blvd., where they found the victim, Dean Ahidley. Ahidley had a large wound above his left eye, which appeared to be consistent with a gunshot wound, and he appeared disoriented. He was transported to a hospital in El Paso for treatment.

Police later located Ojeda and another man, David Maillelle, near the scene. While Ojeda denied any involvement in the attack, officers observed blood on his clothes, and his appearance suggested he had been involved in a physical altercation. Maillelle, who was also homeless, spoke with police and explained that the three men had been drinking together at a campsite in the desert area west of AutoZone. He told officers that Ahidley had criticized Ojeda’s campsite, calling it “gross,” which led to a scuffle between the two men. Afterward, Ojeda allegedly made a comment such as, “I showed him” or “I got him.”

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Maillelle told officers he did not hear a gunshot or see Ojeda with a firearm, but he mentioned that Ojeda often carried a baseball bat and had threatened to use it in the past. Police executed a search warrant at the campsite and found evidence of a struggle, including Ahidley’s cell phone and a significant amount of blood. A baseball bat was discovered nearby, with blood-like material found on the vegetation next to it.

While the fluids on the bat could not be definitively identified as blood, the weapon was consistent with blunt force trauma, which matched the injuries sustained by Ahidley. A physician treating Ahidley confirmed that there was no gunshot wound and that the injuries appeared to have been caused by blunt force trauma, likely from an item such as a baseball bat.