Albuquerque pays out $850,000 settlement in wrongful death case

In 2022, an Albuquerque Police officer knocked on the door of a man who had allegedly shot into the occupied apartment below him.

When no one came to the door that day, officer Kevin Beem closed the case.

If Beem had followed up, he would have found that the resident, then 31-year-old John Ballejos, was the primary suspect in the double homicide of his aunt and uncle, Virginia Serna and Hesiquio Cordova, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court.

Two months after the initial shooting, Ballejos killed his downstairs neighbors, Daniel Humphrey and Sonia Tenorio.

On Monday, the city of Albuquerque settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed against APD, agreeing to pay the Humphrey and Tenorio families $850,000.

The lawsuit alleged that by failing to investigate Ballejos after the first double homicide and subsequent apartment shooting, APD was partially responsible for the deaths of Humphrey and Tenorio.

“Any competent APD investigator could have and should have arrested Mr. Ballejos for the felony of shooting into (Cynthia) Humphrey’s occupied dwelling while they furthered the investigation of Mr. Cordova and Ms. Serna,” wrote attorney David Adams in the wrongful death complaint.

Adams could not be reached for comment.

In April 2024, Ballejos was sentenced to 60 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of his aunt and uncle, as well as the second-degree murders of his neighbors. Ballejos won’t be eligible for parole until he’s in his 90s.

Beem no longer works for the police department and resigned in August 2023, according to APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos.

Gallegos did not respond to further requests for comment about the settlement.

A history of violence

According to court records, before the string of homicides, Ballejos had a history of violent encounters, including aggravated battery and battery against a police officer.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:

Serna and Cordova had a restraining order against their nephew Ballejos at the time of their deaths after he repeatedly threatened to kill them.

On May 31, 2022, Serna’s son, Diego Chavira, found his mother and stepfather shot to death inside their home in the 900 block of Eighth SW.

Serna and Cordova had been babysitting Chavira’s 2-year-old daughter at the time and Chavira returned home after receiving a phone call from his mother.

When Chavira picked up, he heard only the sound of his daughter crying on the other line.

When he arrived, Chavira found his daughter unharmed. In separate rooms, he found his stepfather and mother dead with her 9mm handgun by her side.

Chavira called 911 and told police he believed Ballejos had killed his parents.

Court records detail no further investigation until two months later when Ballejos allegedly shot into a woman’s apartment after she rejected his romantic advances.

At this point, the wrongful death suit alleged, “APD knew or should have known that Mr. Ballejos was the sole suspect in a violent double homicide involving a firearm.”

Two months after the woman reported the initial shooting, Ballejos shot her aunt and brother who also lived in the apartment, because he blamed them for his eviction from the apartment complex.

The woman identified Ballejos as the shooter from surveillance video and police later found and arrested him at the home where Cordova and Serna were killed months earlier, according to the complaint.

“Mr. Ballejos was free to commit his last two murders because APD failed to conduct an adequate investigation in his prior two violent murders, failed to interview or interrogate Mr. Ballejos, failed to surveil Mr. Ballejos and failed to perform any competent investigation into the shooting into Ms. Humphrey’s apartment, which was a ‘slam dunk’ case,” the wrongful death complaint detailed. 

Gillian Barkhurst is the local government reporter for the Journal. She can be reached at gbarkhurst@abqjournal.com.