Stevi Kathleen Odom-Lynch, a 29-year-old Hispanic/Latina woman, was killed on February 26, 2021, after an early-morning sequence of events that began at the Budget Inn in Artesia, New Mexico. Surveillance cameras recorded a red Jeep Cherokee Latitude arriving at the motel at about 2:20 a.m. with Odom-Lynch, Jerrold Albert Chavarria, and Jerry Antocio Romero. The three entered the motel and rented a room.
Roughly two hours later, the cameras captured Romero escorting a visibly distraught and sobbing Odom-Lynch from the motel and into the back seat of the Jeep. Chavarria then drove away, heading south on U.S. Route 285 into rural Eddy County.
By approximately 5:35 a.m., surveillance footage showed Chavarria and Romero returning to the Budget Inn in the same vehicle, but Odom-Lynch was no longer with them. Later that morning, at approximately 10:21 a.m., the owner of an oil lease about 11 miles south of Artesia called 911 after discovering a body lying near a pump jack in the remote oil-field area. Investigators identified the victim as the same person seen on the motel surveillance footage.
The subsequent autopsy established the extraordinary level of violence involved in the killing. Odom-Lynch had been shot 21 times at close range, with investigators determining that two different calibers of ammunition had been used. Court records also describe additional severe physical trauma. Evidence recovered near the body became significant to the investigation: authorities found a cigarette butt containing Chavarria’s DNA, tire-track impressions that matched the Jeep seen in the surveillance footage, and footwear impressions that were consistent with shoes worn by Romero.
The investigation ultimately focused on Chavarria and Romero. New Mexico initially charged the two with first-degree kidnapping. Those state charges were later dismissed without prejudice after federal prosecutors took over the case, meaning New Mexico retained the ability to bring charges again. On October 25, 2022, federal prosecutors indicted Chavarria and Romero on kidnapping and aiding-and-abetting allegations. A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment on February 22, 2023, charging kidnapping resulting in death.
The federal prosecution then became tied up in a lengthy jurisdictional dispute. The original federal indictment alleged that the Jeep used during the kidnapping qualified as a means or instrumentality of interstate commerce, a requirement prosecutors relied upon to establish federal jurisdiction over an otherwise intrastate crime. On June 5, 2023, a federal judge dismissed the superseding indictment, finding that the government had not sufficiently alleged the interstate-commerce connection required by the federal kidnapping statute. The government appealed. On June 16, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the dismissal, ruling that simply describing the vehicle as a “motor vehicle” was not enough to establish that it was an instrumentality of interstate commerce. The appellate court emphasized that the ruling did not determine whether Chavarria or Romero committed the underlying crimes and noted that New Mexico remained free to prosecute them.
Federal prosecutors did not abandon the case. On August 20, 2025, a new grand jury indictment again charged Chavarria and Romero with kidnapping resulting in death, this time providing considerably more detail to establish federal jurisdiction. Prosecutors alleged that the kidnapping involved a Jeep Cherokee manufactured in Toledo, Ohio, the use of U.S. Route 285, and the Budget Inn, which prosecutors described as a motel serving interstate travelers. Romero again sought dismissal, with Chavarria joining the motion. On February 23, 2026, a federal judge denied that request, ruling that U.S. Route 285 constituted an instrumentality of interstate commerce and that the new indictment therefore sufficiently alleged the jurisdictional element necessary for the federal prosecution to continue.
The case produced a major development on June 30, 2026, when Chavarria pleaded guilty under a plea agreement to conspiracy to kidnap. Federal prosecutors stated that he faces a potential sentence of up to life in prison. The plea represented the first guilty plea publicly reported in connection with Odom-Lynch’s abduction and killing, although the offense to which Chavarria pleaded guilty was conspiracy to kidnap rather than a separate murder conviction.
Romero remained in federal custody and continued to face prosecution. According to the most recent publicly reported case update located, he was awaiting trial and no trial date had been announced. Chavarria was awaiting sentencing following his guilty plea. The investigation and federal prosecution were handled by the FBI’s Roswell Resident Agency with assistance from the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office.
