Federal judge adds 20 years to Talamantes-Romero's sentence

A federal judge this week added 20 years in prison to the life sentence Luis Talamantes-Romero is currently serving for the 2019 shooting death of a woman in the driveway of her Albuquerque home.

Talamantes-Romero, 36, was found guilty last year by a 2nd Judicial District Court jury of first-degree murder in the killing of 55-year-old Jacqueline Vigil, who was fatally shot while sitting in her car in November 2019.

A judge sentenced him in May 2023 to life in prison on the murder charge and an additional 26½ years for eight other felonies he committed during a crime spree that led to Vigil’s killing.

The life sentence requires him to remain in prison for at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole.

A Mexican national, Talamantes-Romero pleaded guilty in 2020 to a single federal count of illegal reentry to the United States, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

A federal judge in San Antonio this week handed down the 20-year sentence and made the sentence consecutive to the prison time he is currently serving in New Mexico, the statement said.

The case gained national attention and took on political overtones when Jacqueline Vigil’s husband, Sam Vigil, and sons attended a news conference at the White House. Then-President Donald Trump announced at that event that the case would be included in the federal crime fighting initiative, Operation Legend.

At his trial in Albuquerque in April 2023, prosecutors argued that Vigil’s killing was random during a robbery. Talamantes-Romero and a passenger drove around Vigil’s upscale Northwest Albuquerque that morning looking for cars to burglarize.

The passenger testified against Talamantes-Romero at his seven-day trial, describing for jurors that they noticed Vigil getting into her Cadillac.

Talamantes-Romero blocked her exit with his Jeep, jumped out and shot her through her driver’s side window, the passenger testified.

The sound of Vigil honking her horn alerted her husband, who ran outside and found his wife slumped over in the front seat of her locked car.

Talamantes-Romero fled to San Antonio, where he was arrested weeks later by federal officials.