Albuquerque man convicted in killing stemming from argument over a motorcycle

Jurors convicted a man Friday of first-degree murder and other charges in the 2022 shooting death of 46-year-old Raymond “Smiley” Aviles during a dispute over a motorcycle.

Joe Simon Hilario Lee Anderson, 41, faces at least 30 years in prison for what prosecutors described as a deliberate act of chasing Aviles through a residential street and firing multiple gunshots, one of which struck and killed Aviles.

The 2nd Judicial District Court jury deliberated less than three hours Friday before reaching the verdicts following a five-day trial before Judge Clara Moran. No sentencing hearing has been scheduled.

Jurors also found Anderson guilty of tampering with evidence and conspiracy for telling a second man to take possession of the motorcycle Aviles was riding and walk it back to Anderson’s residence.

Prosecutor Troy Gray told jurors that Anderson planned the Aug. 6, 2022, killing because he had previously loaned a motorcycle to Aviles, who failed to return it. Aviles was riding the motorcycle at the time he was shot.

Gray said Anderson learned that Aviles was in the area in a text message from his fiancée.

Anderson “wanted the motorcycle back,” Gray said in closing arguments. “He took a gun with him. He made a decision, ‘I’m going to follow him and shoot him.’ He was shooting to kill and he succeeded.”

Anderson’s attorney, Keren Fenderson, said in closing arguments Friday that prosecutors offered as evidence only a poor-quality security video and testimony from witnesses who received favorable plea agreements in exchange for their testimony.

“The only thing they have is a grainy video that doesn’t even show the full event,” Fenderson said in closing arguments. Fenderson argued that Anderson was at home at the time of the killing and that someone else had fired the fatal gunshots. Anderson’s fiancée testified this week that Anderson was home with her at the time of the killing.

Prosecutors told jurors that the knee-length pants worn by the man in the video matched the clothing Anderson was seen wearing in another video made the same night.

Prosecutors showed jurors security video from an apartment building in the 3400 block of Eastern SE, near the site where Aviles was fatally shot.

The video shows Aviles sitting on a motorcycle when a white SUV arrived at the parking lot. When Aviles sees the SUV, he drives away on the motorcycle out of the frame of the video.

As Aviles drives away, a man exits the driver’s seat of the SUV and appears to run after Aviles, followed by a second man who exits the passenger seat of the SUV.

Moments later, the driver runs back to the SUV and drives away, leaving the second man behind, the video shows.

Gray said the second man in the SUV was Ene Gala Ualita, who was fixing vehicles for Anderson and provided eyewitness testimony at trial that Anderson fatally shot Aviles.

Ualita, 40, pleaded guilty in June 2024 to tampering with evidence for removing the motorcycle from the scene of Aviles’ killing, court records show. Ualita was initially charged in July 2023 with an open count of murder in Aviles’ killing, records show.

Anderson was convicted in 2016 by a 2nd Judicial District Court jury of voluntary manslaughter in the 2010 shooting death of Vincente Sanchez and was sentenced to seven years in prison, court records show.