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By Elise Kaplan / Journal Staff Writer Published: Monday, August 29th, 2022 at 3:36PM Updated: Monday, August 29th, 2022 at 9:21PM

In 1998, Cynthia “Cindy” Vigil was arrested for trafficking cocaine – a felony. She had .18 grams – equivalent to about nine grains of rice – of the drug.

Then, while out of jail awaiting trial in March 1999 she was kidnapped by the man now known as the Toy-Box Killer and taken to his trailer in Elephant Butte. She was tortured for three days before she was able to escape and alert police.

David Parker Ray was arrested and police suspect he killed several women – although their bodies were never found. He died in prison in 2002.

As for Vigil, a couple of months later she pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.

But she also went on to co-found the nonprofit organization Street Safe New Mexico, which helps women who are living on the street.

Over the years, Vigil’s criminal history held her back from getting a job after finishing school to be a medical assistant and dental-hygienist. It also made it hard for her to get safe housing, meaning she’s currently living in a motel with her sons.

On Monday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham granted Vigil – now Cynthia Jaramillo – a partial pardon along with five others convicted of nonviolent offenses.

The above details of her life and the case against her were included in a letter sent from Street Safe New Mexico to the governor requesting the pardon.

“Without Cindy at the helm, we wouldn’t have been able to provide marginalized women with free feminine hygiene products, blankets, clothing, and other necessities of daily life,” the organization’s co-founder and executive director Christine Barber wrote in the letter. “Without her thousands of rape victims who were attacked while selling sex on the street wouldn’t have been able to warn other women about suspects via our weekly Bad Guy List. Without her, dozens of trafficking victims wouldn’t have escaped their traffickers and been provided housing….”

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“If anyone deserves to be pardoned, it is her,” Barber added.

Jaramillo did not respond to requests for an interview on Monday.

The Journal spoke with her about her life and children in 2016 and covered a news conference in 2011 in which she discussed the Toy-Box Killer and made public appeals for more victims to come forward.

A governor’s pardon restores the right to vote and the right to hold public office. It also can restore the right to have a firearm if an applicant specifically requests it.

The New Mexico Constitution states that the “governor shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons, after conviction for all offenses except treason and in cases of impeachment” and the decision is “unrestrained by any consideration other than the conscience and wisdom and the sense of public duty of the governor.”

Applications are submitted to the Office of the Secretary of State and the state Parole Board reviews them and makes non-binding recommendations to the governor.

Since taking office in 2019, Lujan Grisham has issued 56 pardons. Her predecessor, Susana Martinez, issued three in eight years – far less than Republican Gary Johnson and Democrat Bill Richardson.

In addition to Jaramillo, Lujan Grisham also pardoned Bridgette Yvette Tabor, Jack Ferguson, Travis Earl Gatling, Randall E. Johnston, and Kathleen Woerter. The forgiven offenses include fraud, larceny, burglary, drug possession and distribution, and failure to disclose facts to obtain public assistance, among others, according to the governor’s spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett.

Sackett said all of the offenses were at least a decade old and most dated back several decades.

For Jaramillo the pardon means she can now add it to housing or job applications or to others who “dismiss her because of her past,” according to the letter.

“But most importantly she could show it to the women our nonprofit serves,” Barber wrote. “To them it would be more than a pardon. It would be proof that a person with the highest authority in our state truly sees and values a woman who was once just like them. It would be a symbol of hope.”