State Police arrested a New Mexico man in Rotterdam on Tuesday, Nov. 20, on charges he was involved in a murder plot.
Police charged Tanner D. Ruane, 23, with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree and two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery with a deadly weapon on a warrant from New Mexico State Police.
Ruane was arrested at the Pilot Gas Station on Route 7 in Rotterdam after he spent the night in an Albany hotel, police said. He allegedly had traveled to Vermont with his uncle, Mark Staake, 41, in order to murder two people in the St. Albans area near the Canadian border. The two had tried to cross into Canada but Staake was arrested for being in violation of felony probation for aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon. Ruane was released at the border.
Police said after Ruane was arrested he said he had traveled to Vermont with his uncle to purchase a car.
Police said they recovered evidence of the conspiracy in Ruane’s 1983 BMW. They allegedly found documents including the identities of the intended victims, their family members and their whereabouts.
Police said Staake, while serving time at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility, befriended Dana Martin, 45, who is serving two life sentences for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Barre, Vt. Staake was recently released from the correctional facility. Police did not release information on the two intended victims in Vermont.
Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney is coordinating with New Mexico authorities on the extradition of Ruane, who was remanded to Schenectady County jail without bail.