Fourth suspect arrested in fatal shooting of teen during vape deal

Michael Gallegos was sitting in his car at the Barelas Community Center parking lot on April 2, waiting to complete his last vape deal of the night. Gallegos, 18, sold nicotine vapes and drugs, according to police, but his last deal ended in a spray of bullets that fatally struck him in the chest, killing him.

He would have turned 19 one month later, on May 31.

Jordan Sedillo, 18, is charged with an open count of murder, shooting at or from a vehicle resulting in great bodily harm, and two counts of tampering with evidence in the April 2 shooting death of Michael Gallegos, also 18.

Prosecutors filed a pretrial detention motion to keep Sedillo behind bars in the alleged attempted robbery turned homicide.

Sedillo was taken into custody Wednesday and does not currently have an attorney.

Three other young men, 18-year-old Robert Rodriguez, 19-year-old Nathaniel Gutierrez and 22-year-old Jeffrey Jojola, have also been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting and face similar charges.

Police were able to identify Sedillo using phone records and location data, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

Around 11 p.m., officers were dispatched after receiving a call about a gunshot in the Barelas Community Center parking lot, near Eighth SW south of Coal.

When officers arrived, they saw a Dodge Charger running and in drive on the curb. Inside, they saw Gallegos sitting in the driver’s seat covered in blood with a gunshot wound to the head. Police also found a bullet, two cellphones and packaged nicotine vapes at the scene, the complaint says.

Police executed a search warrant on Sedillo’s phone and found text messages in which he and Rodriguez discussed plans to rob Gallegos, as well as how they planned to spend the money, according to the complaint.

“I’m praying for that lucky 100k,” Rodriguez wrote to Sedillo, according to the complaint. “Then we can both pull up blinged out, pay off your car, we’re (wear) homies Rolex and rings and jewelry and (expletive).”

“Dude, that’d be (expletive) sick,” Sedillo wrote before asking what time the group planned to rob Gallegos.

The group planned to ask Gallegos to sell them vapes before robbing him, but the robbery turned fatal when Gallegos attempted to flee and nearly ran over Rodriguez. Rodriguez then fired shots at Gallegos, according to the officer that wrote the complaint.

Police said that during an interrogation, one of the teens told them Sedillo’s cut was between $2,000-3,000.

According to a pretrial detention motion, it was Sedillo who suggested the group point guns at Gallegos to get him out of his car and drove the others around to purchase supplies for the robbery.

“(Sedillo) was involved in a plan that led to the death of Gallegos when his co-conspirators only meant to rob him,” the motion read. “Someone capable of this type of plan and violence is not someone the court should expect to have any respect for passive conditions of release.”

The night of the shooting, video footage from a nearby home security camera showed Gallegos back into a parking spot at the community center, and a person is seen standing outside Gallegos’ driver’s side door, according to the court document.

Footage showed Gallegos tried to drive away before a gunshot rang out. The car hit a curb and stopped, according to the complaint.

An obituary for Gallegos stated that he was a sports fan, loved his car “so much it was his baby,” and was always smiling.