Jury convicts man in 2022 robbery, shooting death in ABQ

A jury on Thursday found Bobby Daniel Lopez guilty of first-degree murder in the 2022 shooting of a man during a planned robbery outside a Northeast Albuquerque apartment complex.

The 2nd Judicial District Court jury also found Lopez, 30, guilty of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in the killing of 30-year-old Anjel Varela, who was found fatally shot in his car on Jan. 28, 2022.

Prosecutors told jurors this week that Lopez fatally shot Varela during a robbery planned with others under the ruse of a narcotics deal.

“I do feel like justice was served,” Varela’s brother, Bernave De La Cruz, said Thursday following the verdict. The family’s three-year ordeal has been particularly hard on Varela’s two children, ages 8 and 14, he said.

“His kids can now grow and remember their dad,” De La Cruz said.

Lopez faces a sentence of up to life plus 15 years in prison, prosecutors said. A life sentence requires him to serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole.

Judge Emeterio Rudolfo has not scheduled Lopez’s sentencing hearing.

Two of Lopez’s three co-defendants testified this week in Lopez’s trial, Assistant District Attorney Christine Jablonsky said Thursday.

Three of Lopez’s co-conspirators have pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison terms on charges related to Varela’s killing, court records show.

Lopez’s attorney, Sandra Gallagher, told jurors Monday that key witnesses cut a deal with the state in exchange for reduced charges in Varela’s killing.

“When you make a deal with the state, you have to throw someone into that volcano,” Gallagher said in opening statements.

Albuquerque police found Varela fatally shot in the driver’s seat of his Chevrolet Monte Carlo outside his residence at the Skyline Apartments at 1200 Louisiana NE, according to a Bernalillo County criminal complaint.

Police interviewed Brianna Garcia, who said that she and a man known as “Los” had planned to rob Varela because he had sold her “bad heroin,” the complaint said. Police later identified “Los” as Lopez, it said.

Garcia, 26, pleaded guilty in 2023 to second-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Another co-conspirator, Danielle Cordova, 34, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery and was sentenced in December 2023 to 12 years in prison. A third co-conspirator, Delilah Michelle Lopez, 28, pleaded guilty to the same crimes and was sentenced in January to five years in prison.