A man was shot while trying to stop the beating of a teenage girl in Albuquerque in 2019. His killer pleaded guilty this week.

Leopoldo Jaquez was fatally shot in 2019 while he was trying to stop the beating of a teenage girl at a Central Avenue bus stop, according to prosecutors.

Donovin Santiago, 21, pleaded guilty last week to first-degree murder in Jaquez’s killing near the University of New Mexico.

Santiago’s attorney, Ashley Reymore-Cloud, said Tuesday that Santiago was defending his girlfriend after Jaquez made advances toward her.

However, Santiago acknowledges that he fatally shot Jaquez, Reymore-Cloud said.

Santiago faces up to 15 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Aug. 15 before 2nd Judicial District Judge Jennifer Wernersbach, according to the plea agreement.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, witnesses told police that Santiago was beating and choking his then-girlfriend when Jaquez attempted to intervene.

“If you want to hit someone, why don’t you hit me?” Jaquez reportedly told Santiago.

Santiago then pulled a gun and shot Jaquez at close range before he and his girlfriend ran, Albuquerque police wrote in a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

Reymore-Cloud said Santiago believed he was defending his girlfriend from an aggressor.

“While (Jaquez) was portrayed as a good Samaritan, what my client believed was going to happen was that (Jaquez) was going to take his girlfriend,” she said. “There was an escalation and (Jaquez) was shot as a result.”

After the shooting, police found Jaquez lying in a parking lot outside Papa John’s restaurant near Central and Yale with a gunshot wound to his chest, according to the criminal complaint.

Several witnesses, including Papa John’s employees, witnessed the shooting and told police a young couple had fled after the encounter, the complaint said.

As they ran, the couple dropped several items, including a medicine bottle with the girlfriend’s name on it, it said.

Detectives found the girl’s parents, who identified their daughter and Santiago from surveillance video of the incident. The parents told police the couple were staying together at a motel. Santiago was arrested about five days after the killing.