Background: Google Maps image shows coordinate-based location in New Mexico outside of Gallup where the FBI says Rydell Happy, inset, murdered a man before terrorizing a family driving along the highway. Inset: Rydell Happy booking photo courtesy of San Juan County Detention Center.
Rydell Happy, who one witness said laughed at the man he shot at point blank range before pushing his body off a cliff in New Mexico, has been arrested and charged after police say he went on a daylong crime spree that also included terrorizing an innocent family driving along the highway.
Happy, 30, was arrested last week for an April 24 crime spree and he remains in detention in federal custody. He could face life in prison for murder in the second degree in Indian Country and will be arraigned Monday before Magistrate Judge Laura Fashing in Albuquerque. A public defender has been appointed to represent him.
According to an FBI affidavit, on April 24, the Navajo Nation Police Department was notified about shots fired near U.S. Highway 491 in an area just within the outer boundaries of the Navajo Nation roughly 40 miles from Gallup, New Mexico.
A family was returning from a trip to Utah when they pulled over on the shoulder of 491 to stretch their legs, police said. An adult child and young grandchild of the driver were in the vehicle, according to court records.
The family told police that not long after returning to their car, they noticed a white SUV had begun to follow them and then abruptly rear-ended them. Officers would later determine the SUV was a Toyota Highlander.
“Pops that sounded like gunfire” prompted the driver to tell the passengers to get down and though the driver tried to outrun the SUV, police say the Highlander eventually managed to pull up right next to the victim’s car. Then, shots started being fired from the passenger side.
The Highlander purposefully collided with the family’s car again, forcing them to pull off on the side of the road, the family said. The SUV sped off and the family found help from a nearby residence.
Once in contact with authorities, the driver told police that the SUV had a single headlight out. On the lookout for a car of this description, police said they eventually located Happy and a police chase ensued.
During that chase, officers said they watched as items were thrown out of the vehicle’s passenger’s side window. The SUV eventually crashed and police arrested Happy and two others inside — they were identified only as “witness 1” and “witness 2” in the FBI affidavit.
A search of the car turned up .22 caliber shell casings, cellphones, a pellet gun and “what appeared to be blood on the driver’s side floorboard,” police said.
During an interview following their arrest, a witness labeled as “W1” in court records told police there were originally four passengers in the car before the shooting on Highway 491. The fourth passenger was identified only as “John Doe” and who may have known Happy personally.
The witness told police:
At one point, HAPPY told the group to get out of the car. JOHN DOE, Happy, W1 and W2 all exited the vehicle. W1 heard Happy tell JOHN DOE to get on his knees. JOHN DOE got on his knees and HAPPY shot him with a revolver.
Then, the complaint states, Happy “grabbed a baseball bat and began hitting JOHN DOE in the head repeatedly.”
Drawing a map, the witness told police later where they could find Doe’s body. The witness described how Happy “began laughing” as Doe began to “beg for his life.”
The first time Happy pulled the trigger, the witness said, the gun did not discharge.
The witness could hear the gun click but when it wouldn’t fire, Happy cocked it again “multiple times until the gun finally discharged, shooting JOHN DOE,” the complaint notes.
The witness told police afterward Happy asked him to “drag the body over the edge of a cliff.”
They did, rolling Doe’s body off a precipice and onto a cliff shelf, police said. Then the trio set off down the highway once again.
The items that police said they later saw being thrown out of the vehicle during their pursuit were the gun and baseball bat used to allegedly murder Doe. When Doe’s body was eventually found, there was a “substantial amount of blood on the ground” and investigators believed the suspect would very likely have blood on their own clothes.
During a police interview, a second witness who was in the car with Happy claimed the group had picked up a hitchhiker earlier that day and the hitchhiker had pulled a knife on them and managed to commandeer the vehicle. This witness later claimed it was the hitchhiker who started shooting at the family’s car.
But under questioning, the witness could not identify what kind of gun was used. Police said the witness, stretching the credibility of their story, further claimed it was the hitchhiker who threw things out of the window before finally managing to “jump out” of the car and “escape” just as police had finally stopped them.
Court records show that Happy’s interview with police on April 26 featured this mysterious “hitchhiker” tale, too. Happy, who told police he was a member of Navajo Nation, said that he was passed out drunk in the back seat of the SUV during the chase and shooting and had no recollection of anything until he was arrested.
There was no blood found on Happy’s clothing but further investigation matched shoe prints near the cliff where Doe was shot, dragged and pushed off, to the tread on the bottom of another witness’ shoes.
Police said an interview at an area pawnshop later confirmed that Happy tried to buy a .22 caliber but was turned away since he didn’t have ID. Another man identified as “witness 2” from the Highlander allegedly went into the pawnshop and bought the gun before hopping into Happy’s waiting car.
Notably, the criminal complaint states that police were able to connect these details back to another shooting they responded to the same day in Gallup. A person had contacted police on April 24 saying they had been picked up in a white SUV after offering the driver $20 for a ride. That person said the occupants demanded more money and when he didn’t have it to offer, he was forced out of the car.
Then, the man told police he heard someone say “shoot him in the knee cap” and the man riding in the front passenger seat shot him in the leg.
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