Accused of murder, teens attend hearing
Both boys, aged 17 and 15, are charged after police say they shot a homeless man 12 times ‘ for fun’
Two teenage boys accused of fatally shooting a middle-aged homeless man a dozen times last month “for fun” shuffled into a courtroom in Metropolitan Court Wednesday afternoon, shackled at the wrists and ankles, for their first appearance before a judge.
Anthony Gallegos, 17, and Timothy Chavez, 15, sat surrounded by transport officers in two rows of chairs, with their heads down, occasionally glancing toward the audience as they talked with a public defender.
Chavez’s mother watched the proceedings, but it is unclear if Gallegos’ family was in attendance.
The teenagers are charged with murder, conspiracy and tampering with evidence, and are being tried as adults. Prosecutors asked that they stay locked up until trial, citing the brutality of the crime, their boasts about the killing and their history with the law so far.
“In just the first few months of this year, defendant has shot at juveniles; participated in a drug deal which turned into a shooting; picked up an aggravated battery case; and now participated in a homicide,” prosecutors wrote in a motion asking for Chavez to be held in pre-trial detention. “Defendant’s violent conduct with firearms is escalating and poses a danger to the community.”
In Gallegos’ case, prosecutors cited a “propensity for violence,” saying that “now his behavior has escalated to the point where he is involved in a homicide. He poses a danger to the community.”
After the hearing, their public defender Jeff Rein declined to comment.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, in mid-March, Chavez and Gallegos each shot Ronnie Ross, 50, in the head, back and ribs on the 1200 block of Menaul, just west of Interstate 25. Witnesses said that before the shooting they had been at a friend’s birthday party nearby and were flashing a gun.
Officer Simon Drobik, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said detectives believe the two shot Ross “for fun” and did not know him or have any previous dealings with him.
He said investigators don’t know yet where the teenagers got the gun and detectives are investigating that. It was found, wrapped in a shirt, about a half mile from where Ross was killed.
Violence against the homeless
On March 18, officers found Ross’ body riddled with bullets and lying in the landscaping rocks off the sidewalk near the T-Mobile Call Center. He was clad in a black jacket and blue jeans, a bullet hole visible in his temple and forehead.
Ten .45 caliber shell casings scattered the ground nearby and police say the autopsy took two days to complete because of the numerous times Ross had been shot.
An ID bracelet from the Metropolitan Detention Center gave detectives Ross’ name and birthdate, and when they tracked down his sister she told them he was homeless, often traveling between New Mexico and Arizona.
But, she said, she thought her brother was locked up and had no idea he was in Albuquerque.
In fact, Ross, a Native American from Shiprock, had been released from jail less than 48 hours before his death.
According to a criminal complaint, he had served two days in jail after he was picked up on a warrant for shoplifting stemming from an arrest in late October. Police said he had tried to walk out of Walmart with a basket full of clothes and shoes.
Hank Hughes, Executive Director of the NM Coalition To End Homelessness, said the attack is another reminder of the violence often visited upon homeless people.
He said Ross’ death brings to mind the 2014 slaying of two Navajo homeless men, Allison Gorman, 44, and Kee Thompson, 45, who were also killed by three teenagers, who beat and stabbed them.
Gilbert Tafoya, Nathaniel Carillo and Alex Rios were all convicted in the case and sentenced to 20, 26 and 67 years in prison, respectively.
“In a case where there’s this much violence, there’s something really going wrong in the rearing of these teenagers to be adults,” Hughes said about Ross’ slaying. “They’re missing something. I don’t know if we can reach people on that level — when they’ve got that much hate inside them.”
Getting into trouble
Before Gallegos and Chavez were accused of shooting Ross to death, the teenagers lived with their families in tidy, beige subdivisions, about a mile and a half apart, in far Northwest Albuquerque.
Both families declined to comment to the Journal, but neighbors living in the area off Rainbow and Paseo Del Norte NW remembered seeing them walking around with friends.
They said people would frequently be coming and going from the house Chavez lived in with his family.
People who live in the area said Gallegos was troubled and disruptive in the two-story stucco home where his guardians lived. It is unclear exactly what relationship Gallegos had to the guardians.
Last school year, Chavez attended Tony Hillerman Middle School and Gallegos went to Volcano Vista High School, but more recently they were both 9th-graders at the Juvenile Detention Center educational center, according to a spokeswoman for Albuquerque Public Schools.
Last October, officers took Gallegos into custody on warrants after setting up a perimeter around his house on the 10000 block of Shawna NW in Ventana Ranch, according to a police report. He was wanted by juvenile probation. While in the Juvenile Detention Center, he racked up battery charges and rule violations.
According to court documents, he punched youth program officers, and in a separate incident spat at and berated officers.
After Gallegos was released, he was ordered to live at New Day Shelter in Albuquerque, according to a police report.
But in late January, an employee reported that he showed up one day appearing to be under the influence of drugs and then ran away.
According to the police report, officers later talked to his guardian, who said he had gone to her house and she did not want to report him as missing.
According to police reports, Chavez didn’t start getting into serious trouble with the law until just a couple of months ago. But since early January, police say, he was involved in a drive-by shooting, he and some friends attacked two other teenagers with a pencil to the neck, and he was charged with attempted murder after reportedly shooting and critically injuring a man during a drug deal.
In that case, on March 22, Chavez’s neighbor, Justin Baca, said he heard gunshots around 9 p.m. and his dogs began to bark.
He said he walked out of his home to find his neighbors out front watching rescue crews rush a “kid” to the hospital. He had been shot in the face.
“They weren’t sure he was going to be alright,” Baca said.
Police say Chavez, Gallegos and 16-yearold Santino Lucero had orchestrated the shooting over a drug deal and lured the man to the park with an offer to buy $130 of marijuana — even though they only had $100.
What happened next, and who pulled the trigger, is unclear from a criminal complaint.
During questioning, Lucero later told police he “didn’t like the deal,” so he grabbed the cash and ran away from the car. Police say a friend of all three teens came forward a few days later to tell detectives the three had told him they shot the man in the face “for fun.”