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Belen woman sentenced to 18 years in 2022 shooting death
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A judge this week sentenced a Belen woman to 18 years in prison in the 2022 shooting death of her daughter’s ex-boyfriend.
Elizabeth Ortiz-Chavez, 49, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder in the March 2022 killing of 16-year-old Josue Ruiz in a Downtown alley near Sixth and Central SW. She was sentenced on Thursday by 2nd Judicial District Judge Lucy Solimon.
Ortiz-Chavez’s son was arrested in 2022 in connection with Ruiz’s shooting death. Ortiz-Chavez was arrested in June 2023 when police alleged that she had arranged a meeting between Ruiz and her son “knowing what would happen,” court records show.
Ortiz-Chavez’s son, Angelo Baldonado, pleaded guilty in 2023 to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and assault with intent to commit a violent felony in Ruiz’s killing. Solimon sentenced Baldonado, 19, to remain in the Bernalillo County Youth Diagnostic and Development Center until age 21.
Albuquerque police found Ruiz fatally shot in an alley behind Lindy’s Diner on March 4, 2022.
The dispute began because Baldonado’s teenage sister was pregnant and had told her family that Ruiz had hit her, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
