ABQ man charged in ’22 homicide
Suspect shot woman in the head during an argument, police say
Albuquerque police arrested a man almost two years after he allegedly fatally shot a woman at an apartment in the International District.
Jesus “Satellite” Sanchez, 28, was charged Thursday with an open count of murder in the Jan. 22, 2022, death of Shania Spencer, 22.
Sanchez has been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center since Oct. 2, when he was arrested after allegedly fleeing from police in a stolen Camaro.
Sanchez has been on probation since April, according to court records, after he pleaded guilty to firing a shotgun into the air.
Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Sanchez behind bars until trial in the death of Spencer, who was found on a mattress with a gunshot wound to the head.
“Murder is dangerous. In this case, there is no evidence that (Sanchez) murdered (Spencer) in a struggle or during a fight,” according to the motion.
Police responded around 7 a.m. to the shooting at a apartment southwest of Pennsylvania and Zuni. Arriving officers found Spencer dead on a mattress with bullet casings nearby.
Witnesses at the scene, including Spencer’s boyfriend, told police a man named “Satellite” shot Spencer during an argument, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Police learned that a week earlier Spencer had reported that a man named “Satellite” — later identified as Sanchez — attacked her with an ax.
In the months that followed Spencer’s death, according to police, a man was shot and injured by Sanchez, Sanchez himself was shot in the face and he was arrested for firing a shotgun in a courtyard.
The complaint does not detail any investigative efforts between March 2022 and June 2023, when a new detective took the case.
The detective interviewed Sanchez while he was in jail, and he denied being involved in Spencer’s homicide or the ax attack, according to the complaint. The detective also interviewed a woman who said Sanchez told her that he killed Spencer for disrespecting him.
Police said a search of Sanchez’s cellphone records showed he was in the general area when Spencer was killed and his DNA “could not be excluded” from a Sunkist can left at the scene.