Costilla County Commissioners appointed sheriff Deputy Joe Smith interim sheriff on Monday following the resignation of Danny Sanchez. The county commissioners took the action during a special meeting following Sanchez’s resignation late Friday after his indictment by a 12th Judicial District grand jury.
Smith is going through a background check and fingerprinting verification through Colorado Bureau of Investigation before he is sworn into the sheriff’s role. Mike Martinez, an investigator with the district attorney’s office, will work temporarily with Smith as an administrator of the sheriff’s office, said Costilla County Chief Administrative Officer Ben Doon.
Indicted along with Sanchez were undersheriff Cruz Soto and deputies Roland Riley and Caleb Sanchez. All three are on paid administrative leave while Costilla County investigates whether they violated any county policies which could lead to termination, Doon said.
Former sheriff Deputy Keith Schultz was also indicted. He and Sanchez are facing five counts each of official misconduct and one count each of abuse of a corpse.Â
The abuse of corpse charge against Sanchez and Schultz involves their handling of the discovery of unidentified human remains in the Wild Horse Mesa area of Costilla County in 2024. In Sanchez’s indictment, it states that Sanchez and Schultz collected a human skull but “they never returned to collect the rest of the remains.”
Soto was indicted on two counts of failing to intervene and one count of third-degree assault for his involvement in a use-of-force incident with a Costilla County citizen suffering from a mental health crisis in February 2026. Sanchez and Riley were indicted on counts of assault in the second and third degree for their use of force in that incident.
District Attorney Anne Kelly has scheduled an April 2 meeting at 6 p.m. at the Alamosa County Courthouse to hear from Costilla County residents. She was in attendance and voiced support for Smith’s appointment as interim sheriff, Doon said.
The Costilla County sheriff’s position is up for election this November. Soto remains an active candidate for sheriff as a Democrat running in the June 30 primary election against Jason Maestas.
William Taylor and Hunter Velasquez are running in the Republican primary, while Paul Quintana is looking to make the November ballot as an independent candidate for sheriff.