Albuquerque brothers arrested after weekend fatal shooting on West Side

Bernalillo County deputies arrested two brothers in the fatal shooting of a man during a party early Sunday morning on the mesa west of Albuquerque.

Adan Munoz, 28, is charged with an open count of murder and tampering with evidence in the death of 25-year-old Maikel Antonio Torrealba Romero.

Munoz’s brother, Andi (Andy) Parra, 27, is also charged in the incident with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and negligent use of a deadly weapon.

Both men are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment.

Court records state that Munoz’s initial appearance and Parra’s detention hearing are scheduled for Thursday.

Munoz is currently on pretrial release, with an ankle monitor, in a July 13 case in which he allegedly choked his wife in front of their child and threatened to kill both before firing a gun in a parking lot.

Deputies say the ankle monitor helped them put Munoz at the scene when and where Romero was killed.

The motive behind the homicide is unclear.

At 5:20 a.m. Sunday, the Albuquerque Police Department responded to a call of a shooting in the dirt area west of 98th and Avalon, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court. Police said when they arrived, they found Romero lying face down dead.

APD contacted the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office to take the lead on the investigation due to the body being in BCSO’s jurisdiction.

Deputies said a woman told BCSO she and her husband were at the gathering when a man — later identified as Parra — hit her husband in the back of the head with a handgun. The woman told deputies she confronted Parra, who she knew, and he tried shooting at her, but the gun misfired.

The woman told deputies another man — later identified as Munoz — knelt next to a nearby vehicle and fired in their direction, according to an affidavit. She said Munoz then shot Romero, who was in the vicinity, multiple times “at very close range.”

Deputies said the husband, who identified both suspects to BCSO, told them Romero “was innocent of anything that happened” because he was not armed.

Detectives learned Munoz was on an ankle monitor and used the GPS data to put him at the scene when Romero was shot.