A Santa Fe man with an extensive history of drug- and assault-related charges was arrested early Sunday, accused of stabbing another man to death during an argument over illicit drugs, police said Sunday.

Matthew Sanchez, 24, was booked into the Santa Fe County jail on an open charge of murder in connection with the death early Saturday of Amaru Leyba, 31, of Ribera, a village in San Miguel County near Las Vegas, N.M., said Lt. Louis Carlos of the Santa Fe Police Department.

Residents found Leyba about 4:45 a.m. Saturday, slouched over the steering wheel of his Mitsubishi Montero in the driveway of a compound at 1600 West Alameda Street, just west of Camino Alire and north of the Santa Fe River.

Carlos said Sanchez and Leyba had been arguing over narcotics in the vehicle and that "Sanchez decided to settle it with a knife." He would not confirm whether a murder weapon had been found, and he declined to say how many times Leyba had been stabbed.

Carlos said Sanchez was arrested without a fight at a home on the city's north side about 1 a.m. Sunday by officers who had tracked him there. Police had been given photos of the suspect, Carlos said, and some had recalled having seen him Saturday afternoon at Fiesta de Santa Fe activities on the Plaza.

Carlos would not say how officers learned it was Sanchez they were looking for. "It was part of the investigation [and] involves confidential sources and information," he said.

Sanchez has an extensive arrest record in Santa Fe County, going back to at least November 2006, when he was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana, according to the jail's website. The site lists a total of 10 previous arrests. Results of the cases could not be immediately determined Sunday.

Until Sunday, Sanchez's last arrest was in August 2010, when he was booked on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence.

Sanchez's other run-ins with the law have involved alleged assaults on police officers, possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia, and failure to appear in court.

The jail's website also lists nine arrests for Leyba from May 2003 to February 2006, many apparently involving probation violations. The nature of the other arrests was not immediately clear.

A resident of the home where Leyba was found, Dolores Duran, 53, said Saturday that she went outside to see what was going on after she heard a groaning noise and someone crying for help.

Approaching the vehicle, she said, she asked Leyba what was wrong, and he replied, "I'm dying, I'm dying. I've been stabbed."

Carlos said police, who already had been summoned by another resident, arrived about that time and found Leyba lying on the ground, conscious but with at least one "penetrating wound to the chest." He died soon afterward at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, Carlos said.

Duran said she allowed Leyba, who was among a group of people that included one of her cousins, to park his vehicle in the driveway while the group went to the Fiesta celebrations.