Unsealed documents link January killing to drug deal
31-year-old faces first-degree murder, other charges
A scu±e over a backpack after a drug a deal led to a fatal shooting in January at an apartment complex in the Hopewell Mann neighborhood, according to court records unsealed Monday.
Police recently arrested Randall Lopez, 31, on a charge of first-degree murder, along with counts of armed robbery and being a felon in possession of firearm in connection with the Jan. 8 death of 50-year-old Frank Pete.
In a motion asking the state District Court to hold Lopez without bond until trial, a prosecutor said she had learned from police Lopez goes by the street name “Hitman.” District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer is scheduled to consider the motion for pretrial detention at a Friday hearing.
The Santa Fe Police Department had asked the court to seal the case March 11 to protect people named in charging documents. A judge ordered the records unsealed last week, and the process was completed Monday.
An affidavit seeking a warrant for Lopez’s arrest reveals more details about the incident and how police built a case against Lopez by interviewing a network of people connected to one another through the shooting, longtime acquaintances, drug use, property crime and family ties.
A woman who lived in the Las Palomas apartment complex with her partner and their children told police she had asked Pete to come by that night to sell methamphetamine to someone else, according to the 16-page affidavit. Lopez arrived with his younger sister and another man to buy drugs from Pete, the affidavit says, but Lopez went outside to work on his car during the transaction.
Police believe when the deal was done, Pete left the apartment and encountered
Lopez, who stole his backpack and then shot him twice in the back and once in the neck, the affidavit says.
Lopez’s defense attorney, Tom Clark, declined to comment Tuesday.
A neighbor told police he awoke to the sounds of a scu±e and looked out the window to see two men fighting over a backpack. The affidavit says, “a tall heavy set male wearing all black had the backpack in one hand and a gun in the other hand.”
The neighbor heard shots and ran from the window to tell a family member to call police.
“When he returned to the window one guy was on the ground and the tall heavy set guy with the gun was standing over him,” the affidavit says.
The witness told police the heavier man “pointed the gun at the guy on the ground and let off the last shot.”
On Jan. 15, after police began searching for Lopez, he came to the police station with his father, saying he wanted to clear his name, according to the affidavit.
But after being read his rights and served with a warrant for his DNA, the affidavit says, Lopez said he wanted to get a lawyer and left without making a statement. The New Mexican is not naming Lopez’s sister and other witnesses in the affidavit, who have not been charged in the case.
A man police believe accompanied
Lopez and his sister at the apartment that night told officers he and the sister ran outside the apartment when they heard shots. They didn’t see Lopez or the car, the man said, so they ran away on foot and because there was a warrant out for the sister’s arrest.
“When they got to the intersection a car came towards them revving its engine, which turned out to be [Lopez] so they got into the car,” according to the affidavit.
However, that account conflicts with a statement from a witness who said none of the vehicles in the lot moved between the time of the shooting and when police arrived and taped off the crime scene.
A man arrested on unrelated charges told police Lopez had admitted to killing Pete, the affidavit says.
The man also told police Lopez had stolen the gun he used shoot Pete during a previous drug-related robbery.
Lopez was convicted of multiple counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2009, but online court records don’t contain any more details of that crime.
Police have said Pete was an Arizona resident, but he had a criminal record in New Mexico dating back to 2018. Public records indicate he may have been married, but attempts to locate his wife were unsuccessful Tuesday.
A former landlord said she didn’t know if the couple were still together at the time of Pete’s death.
Santa Fe police Capt. Anthony Tapia said he couldn’t provide any additional information about Pete.
Tapia said no one else has been charged in relation to the shooting, but the investigation is still active and “future charges with others are possible.”