A wife is accused of gunning down her husband. Court records detail months of tumult leading up to the shooting.

A woman is accused of gunning down her husband early Wednesday morning after months of discord and 911 calls at the couple's Southwest Albuquerque home.

Police say the couple's 16-year-old daughter saw her mother driving away before finding Joel Valdez shot to death in the road near their home.

Erica Valdez, 39, is charged with an open count of murder, shooting at or from a motor vehicle, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the death of 39-year-old Joel Valdez.

Erica Valdez was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Thursday.

Fidencio Duran, Joel Valdez's brother, said his brother was a tattoo artist who loved to ride motorcycles. He said he will miss his brother's smile, laugh and how he would always assure Duran, "I'll be there."

"He had his downfalls, like everyone does, but he was a good father," Duran said, adding that Valdez had three children.

Duran said his brother's main focus in recent years was "to do everything in his power to keep his family close."

The couple's teenage daughter and 4-year-old daughter were initially taken into the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, according to court records. The children are now with Joel Valdez's relatives, who filed a petition on Thursday for an order of protection to keep Erica Valdez and her parents away from the girls.

Court records show a CYFD investigator wrote in an email that the daughters told authorities there were unreported instances of domestic violence and drug abuse while in their mother's care.

Erica Valdez was charged in April with 911 abuse after allegedly calling police 27 times since January to report domestic violence. In 16 of those calls, Erica Valdez did not answer the door or phone after officers responded to the home. In one instance, on April 14, Erica Valdez told 911 dispatch that her husband was yelling at her and one of their daughters and refusing to leave the house.

The last 911 call from the home came in at 9:45 p.m. on July 4, hours before Joel Valdez was killed, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. In that call a woman was heard screaming that she was going to shoot her husband for bringing a "mistress" home.

When police went to the home, nobody answered the door but they found the house dotted with bullet holes.

Four hours later officers returned to the neighborhood, this time for reports of gunfire and a woman screaming, according to the complaint. Police found Joel Valdez's body in the road — surrounded by his daughter and other relatives — in the 3100 block of West Meadows SW, near 98th and Dennis Chavez.

Police said Joel Valdez's daughter told them her mother, Erica Valdez, had texted a family member that she "sprayed the house" with bullets. She said as they made their way to the home they saw Joel Valdez driving away from the area.

The daughter told police they turned around to follow her father and found him lying in the street outside his car with a gunshot wound, according to the complaint. She said she also saw her mother's car leaving the area.

Police said the daughter told them her parents had been fighting for months and both of them had started seeing other people. She said police took all the guns out of the home when her brother was arrested months ago but Erica Valdez went to Cabela's to buy a new gun soon after.

Detectives found the caliber of the gun bought by Erica Valdez at Cabela's was the same as the bullet casings found outside the home and homicide scene, according to the complaint. Joel Valdez's brother told police he called hours before his death and said Erica Valdez put a gun to his chest and threatened to kill him.

Police said a neighbor's video captured the dispute in the front yard, and Joel Valdez could be heard saying, "Go ahead and shoot me," before automatic gunfire rang out as a vehicle drove away. A woman who was with Joel Valdez at the time told police that, beforehand, the pair had confronted Erica Valdez at a motel where she was with another man.

The woman told police that Erica Valdez then came to the house and put a gun to Joel Valdez's chest before leaving, when automatic gunfire rang out and "drywall started to fly off the walls" inside, according to the complaint. The woman said Joel Valdez told her "it would be best if she left."

"That is the last time she saw Joel alive," a detective wrote in the complaint.