Trial opens in 2017 killing that went unreported for 6 months
Accused man’s wife testified she revealed the murder to police
Law enforcement officers were unaware that Juan Cedeno had been murdered until six months after he was fatally shot and his body dumped on the West Mesa, a prosecutor told jurors this week in the trial of his alleged killer.
Raul Garcia, 40, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting Cedeno to death in 2017, rolling the body in a carpet, and placing it at a remote dump site.
Jurors in also heard testimony Wednesday from Garcia’s wife, Zuly Carrillo, who told police about Cedeno’s killing and led officers to the site of his decomposed body.
The 2nd Judicial District Court trial is scheduled to continue through Monday before Judge Bruce Fox.
Carrillo told jurors she was in Cedeno’s car at the time of the killing and saw Garcia draw a handgun and fatally shoot Cedeno.
Carrillo, 45, acknowledged that she received an immunity deal from prosecutors in exchange for her testimony.
“I did not want to be here, but I was threatened,” Carrillo said without elaborating. Prosecutor Guinevere Ice asked Carrillo why she revealed the murder to police.
“I don’t know why, but I regret it with everything in me,” Carrillo said. “I just felt like I needed closure.”
Carrillo also told jurors that she and Garcia were battling heroin addiction at the time of the killing.
Carrillo told law enforcement officers about Cedeno’s Oct. 29, 2017, killing on April 25, 2018, prosecutor Lawrence Hansen told jurors. She also led them to a dump site at Central and 140th Street, where she and Garcia had dumped the body.
She revealed the killing nearly five months after she and Garcia were arrested on federal charges of armed robbery at two New Mexico businesses.
Garcia and Carrillo were arrested on Nov. 30, 2017, after Albuquerque police observed them driving away from a Domino’s Pizza the couple allegedly robbed at gunpoint, according to federal court records.
Carrillo and Garcia were driving Cedeno’s car at the time of their arrest, Hansen said.
Garcia’s attorney, John McCall, said in opening statements that the prosecution’s case against Garcia relies entirely on Carrillo’s testimony.
“All you are going to hear is that (Carrillo) is the person who gets to decide who was in the vehicle that day with a firearm that killed Juan Cedeno,” McCall told jurors.
McCall said prosecutors have no fingerprint or DNA evidence tying Garcia to the killing, and bullets found in the car did not match the gun recovered at the time of Garcia’s arrest.
“There’s not going to be any evidence that Mr. Garcia knew where that body was or had been to the location except for what she tells you,” McCall told jurors.
Both Garcia and Carrillo remained in federal custody until they were transferred in February to the Metropolitan Detention Center.