APD arrests man in 2021 homicide over money and drugs in Southeast Albuquerque

A man suspected of being part of a 2021 homicide involving drugs and money in Southeast Albuquerque is behind bars.

Eugene Roybal, 45, was arrested Tuesday and has been charged with an open count of murder in the January 2021 death of Dennis Valdez.

Roybal was being represented by the Public Defender’s Office until it contracted the case out to another attorney.

Roybal was identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting in the months after it occurred, according to court records. It is unclear why he was just now charged.

Roybal is not the only person, however, that is connected to the homicide. Adrian Jimenez was arrested in August 2023 and is being charged with an open count of murder, and a warrant is out for his sister, Janette Jimenez.

Just after midnight on Jan. 16, 2021, the Albuquerque Police Department was dispatched to Motel 6 in the 1000 block of Avenida Cesar Chavez SE, east of Interstate 25, after receiving a call from a motel guest who heard multiple gunshots. When officers arrived, they saw a man, later identified as Valdez, lying on the ground with gunshot wounds to the chest and face, according to a criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court.

The complaint states that a woman — who was waiting for drugs in a room with Valdez — told police she saw Janette’s brother Adrian Jimenez kill Valdez, and “believed” Roybal shot the victim as well.

‘I am coming for you’

According to a criminal complaint, the homicide was retribution over a robbery involving Valdez and Janette Jimenez.

The complaint states that Valdez’s foster brother told police Valdez went into Janette Jimenez’s motel room with another man and held a knife to her neck, forced her into a bathtub, and took $20,000 and undisclosed amounts of heroin, methamphetamine and pills from a safe. Valdez’s foster brother also told police another man who was with Valdez then put the money and drugs into a backpack and left.

According to the complaint, one of the woman’s brothers later told Valdez on Facebook, “If I don’t get (the money) back I am telling you I am coming for you and your family.”

The complaint states Valdez’s foster brother told police he and Valdez sold drugs to earn enough money to pay the woman back. He also told police that Valdez wrote a letter to the woman and her brothers asking for two months to pay the money back.

On the night of Jan. 16, according to the complaint, Valdez’s foster brother told police he was told to go to a room at another Motel 6 in the city to pick up money from a someone named “Fat Lee.” When the man arrived, the foster brother told APD he didn’t see anyone in the room. When he returned to the Motel 6 on Avenida Cesar Chavez, he learned Valdez was dead. A detective later contacted “Fat Lee” who told them Valdez was killed because he robbed Janette Jimenez.

The complaint adds that Roybal told police, who identified him from a Facebook picture and a MDC booking photo, that Janette Jimenez was his drug dealer and it was her “people” who were out to get Valdez.

Roybal’s detention hearing is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Monday while Adrian Jimenez has a pretrial conference scheduled for October, according to court records.