Fatal shooting at Central bus stop draw 11-year sentence for gunman

A man who pleaded guilty in a fatal shooting at an Albuquerque bus stop in 2019 was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison.

Donovin Santiago, 21, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Sept. 20, 2019, shooting death of 33-year-old Leopoldo Jaquez during a confrontation near Central and Yale.

Santiago had faced up to 15 years in prison under a plea agreement accepted July 25 by 2nd Judicial District Judge Jennifer Wernersbach.

Police alleged that Jaquez was trying to stop the beating of a teenage girl at the Central Avenue bus stop at the time he was shot.

Santiago’s attorney, Ashley Reymore-Cloud, has said that Santiago believed he was defending his girlfriend from an aggressor after Jaquez made advances toward her.

Albuquerque police found Jaquez lying in a parking lot outside a Papa John’s restaurant near Central and Yale with a gunshot wound to his chest, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. He died at the scene.

Witnesses told police that Santiago was beating and choking his then-girlfriend when Jaquez attempted to intervene.

Santiago then pulled a gun and shot Jaquez at close range before he and his girlfriend ran, the complaint said.

Several witnesses, including Papa John’s employees, witnessed the shooting and told police a young couple ran away after the encounter, the complaint said.

As they ran, the couple dropped several items, including a medicine bottle with the girlfriend’s name on it, it said.

Detectives found the girl’s parents, who identified their daughter and Santiago from surveillance video of the incident. The parents told police the couple were staying together at a motel. Santiago was arrested about five days after the killing.