Latest news with #Albuquerque
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Man accused of killing former tenant and dumping body in East Mountains
Jun. 19—An Albuquerque man is accused of beating his former tenant to death with a bat and dumping his body in the East Mountains, where it was found by detectives Thursday morning. Derek DePalma, 40, was arrested Wednesday and was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center. He is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and kidnapping. Police have not identified the man who was killed. Officers responded to a 911 call Wednesday afternoon about a resident who captured video of a fight between DePalma and a man on her security camera in the 500 block of Aztec NW, according to the criminal complaint. The woman said DePalma is seen striking the man in the head with a bat and loading him into the bed of a pickup truck. The woman told police she saw the two arguing the morning before, and she knew the man, whom she described as "homeless," because she hired him to do yard work previously, the complaint states. Officers found DePalma's truck outside his home, which was across the street, with "what appeared to be blood" in the bed. Detectives were able to watch the altercation on the security video, ending when the body was loaded into the truck, according to the complaint. Officers arrested DePalma and spoke with his girlfriend, who said the couple had issues with the man, who was a tenant at the apartment complex the pair operated, the complaint states. She and DePalma had just evicted the man. Using DePalma's cellular data, officers obtained records that showed his phone traveled east on Interstate 40 near the Cedar Crest area. "Digital Intelligence investigators used information from phones to get a more precise location of where DePalma may have taken the victim's body," Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said in a news release Thursday. "Investigators located the body this morning as the sun came up." The body was found along Route 66, west of Sedillo Hill. Gallegos said DePalma was initially charged with aggravated battery with great bodily harm based on the video evidence. He said "detectives are working with the District Attorney's Office to modify the charges" after the body was found.
CBS News
15 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
National Guard troops deployed to crime-plagued Albuquerque are unarmed and not in military uniform
Albuquerque, New Mexico — Outside his motorcycle shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, James Grice every day clears trash before he can open his doors to customers. "All around the building, it's just a daily thing," said Grice, owner of J&L Motorsports, who added that he also sometimes has to clear away unhoused people. "Yeah...I got someone sleeping right there right now." There are bullet holes in his shop's windows, and Grice and officers with the Albuquerque Police Department told CBS News they have a name for this part of the city, known as the Central Avenue Corridor: the "war zone." The Central Avenue Corridor has seen shootings, assaults and drug abuse, including fentanyl, which reached a level that drove Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina in late March to issue a memo asking New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for reinforcements. "As you may know, we have made significant progress in reducing shootings and aggravated assaults along Central Avenue Corridor through a comprehensive approach to public safety centered on proactive police activity," the memo read. "However, sustaining this momentum requires immediate reinforcement." According to a violent crime survey conducted by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, an organization representing police executives, the Albuquerque Police Department reported a drop in violent crime in recent months. It recorded 11 homicides in the first quarter of 2025, down from 21 in the same period in 2024. There were 48 rapes reported in the city in the first quarter of this year, down from 63 over the same period last year. The police department received 153 robbery reports, down from 232 robberies last year, and there were 895 aggravated assaults in the first quarter, down from 1,095 in the same period of 2024, the survey said. Grisham, a Democrat, responded to the memo by declaring a state of emergency in April and authorizing the deployment of about 70 New Mexico National Guard members to the city. The National Guard spent May in training and arrived on Albuquerque's streets on June 5. "I see drug dealing, drug use, prostitution," Grisham recently told CBS affiliate KRQE regarding the Central Avenue Corridor. "I worry about human trafficking. I see violence on the streets." Those Guard members have been training in crisis intervention and de-escalation. And unlike the California National Guard troops that were deployed by President Trump earlier this month in response to protests in Los Angeles, the Guard members deployed by Grisham in Albuquerque are not armed or in military uniform, according to city officials. "The intent of it all is to free Albuquerque police officers to be more available to the community, to answer calls for service, so that's in the capacity we'll be doing this," Maj. Gen. Miguel Aguilar, adjutant general for the New Mexico National Guard, said in briefing last month in Santa Fe. Aguilar also said that 53 of the 71 Guard members deployed are from the Albuquerque area. "We coach in the community, we work in the community, it's a little different when you talk about the national guard. I think it's important to understand that," Aguilar said. During two homicide calls and a SWAT activation this week in Albuquerque, the job of the Guard members was to secure a perimeter. That freed up police officers who would have done that job to go back on the streets and respond to other calls, according to Albuquerque police. "We need to stop playing games with crime," Det. Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, the department's union, told CBS News. Willoughby has his doubts about the effectiveness of the Guard's impact so far. He believes the violence is too fierce for unarmed Guard members to help with. "What are they going to do?" Willoughby asked. "They can't intervene. They don't have the authority to take anybody to jail. They're not armed. They're going to be in one of the most violent communities in this country, in a polo shirt, recognizing themselves as this helper, and they're limited onto what they can do." Civil liberty advocates are uneasy with any plan that increases policing. Still, Grice says the city needs all the help it can get. Grice said he has remained in Albuquerque because he needs to "make it work." "I've got to support my family," Grice said. "I've got employees to worry about." After CBS News finished speaking to Grice, it came across a crime scene in which Albuquerque police were investigating a possible homicide, just a block from the front door of Grice's business.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
2 Gang Members Will Spend Life in Prison for Killing 11-Year-Old in Tragic Case of Mistaken Identity
Froylan Villegas, 11, was killed in a 2023 drive-by shooting as his family left an Albuquerque baseball game Two gang members, Jose Romero and Nathan Garley, mistook the family's truck for a rival's and fired more than a dozen rounds Froylan's cousin, Tatiana, was paralyzed; his mother and infant brother were also in the truck but were uninjuredTwo gang members have been sentenced to life in prison after opening fire on a truck carrying a New Mexico family — killing an 11-year-old boy and paralyzing his cousin in a tragic case of mistaken identity. Jose Romero, 23, and Nathen Garley, 22, were sentenced Monday to life in prison plus 46 years for the September 2023 shooting that killed Froylan Villegas outside an Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game, according to NBC News. The pair were convicted in February of first-degree murder, attempted murder, shooting at a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence, per the outlet. PEOPLE previously reported that Froylan had been riding in the backseat of his family's white Dodge pickup when suspects in another vehicle opened fire through the sunroof of their Dodge Durango, mistakenly believing they were shooting at a rival gang member they had argued with that night. More than a dozen rounds were fired — Froylan was shot in the head and died at the scene. His cousin, 23-year-old Tatiana Villegas, was hit multiple times and is now paralyzed from the chest down. Froylan's mother and his infant brother were also in the car, but were not physically harmed. Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said in a statement that he hopes the verdict brings "come sort of peace and justice to Froylan's family." "We're very happy as a family that we got justice for Froylan and me," Tatiana Villegas told ABC affiliate KOAT. "And that's what matters. The rest we leave in God's hands. We're glad to close this chapter and move on." The shooting sparked statewide concern over youth gun violence, prompting Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to declare a temporary public health emergency with a ban on firearms in parks and playgrounds across said surveillance video, ballistic analysis and eyewitness testimony were crucial in securing the two mens' New Mexico law, their verdict automatically triggers an appeal. Read the original article on People
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
2 men get life sentences in shooting death of 11-year-old outside stadium that prompted gun ban
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two men were sentenced Wednesday to lifelong terms in prison in the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy outside an Albuquerque baseball stadium in 2023 that prompted the New Mexico governor to issue a controversial gun ban, the district attorney's office in Albuquerque said. Investigators say a truck carrying a mother and three young children was mistaken for another vehicle in the shooting as vehicles were leaving the stadium. Gunfire killed 11-year-old Froylan Villegas and paralyzed cousin Tatiana Villegas, while Foylan's mother and baby brother were unharmed. A jury in February convicted Jose Romero and Nathen Garley, both in their early 20s, of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, shooting at or from a vehicle and other charges in the death of Villegas. The men were sentenced to life in prison plus 46 years, ensuring they will stay under Corrections Department custody permanently, prosecutors said. In the aftermath of the shooting and others that killed children, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency over gun violence, temporarily suspending the right to carry guns in some parks and playgrounds in the greater Albuquerque area. The decision touched off protests and legal challenges by advocates for gun rights. District Attorney Sam Bregman, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2026, said in a statement that the shootings 'shook our entire community' and praised his staff for pursuing accountability.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Washington Post
Texas man charged with planning to use fireworks against officers during LA protests
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Texas man has been charged with buying fireworks that he allegedly planned to use against law enforcement officers and government officials during recent immigration protests in California. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the district of New Mexico announced the charges Wednesday, saying 48-year-old Grzegorz Vandenberg visited a store in southwestern New Mexico to purchase fireworks and asked employees for the largest explosives possible.
