Man charged with fatally shooting man, dragging body outside NE ABQ apartment

A man is accused of gunning down a man over a reported theft then dragging his body outside an apartment in Northeast Albuquerque.

Michael Ellzey, 43, of Albuquerque, is charged with an open count of murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, tampering with evidence and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the Oct. 30 shooting death of Ezekiel Verdugo.

Ellzey is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

In April, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was placed on probation, according to court records.

Ellzey was identified by police in a surveillance video, according to a criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court.

At about 1:15 p.m. Oct. 30, the Albuquerque Police Department responded to a call of a suspicious person in the 400 block of Tennessee, north of Copper. Dispatch told officers there was a bloodied body underneath a tree branch, according to the complaint. When officers arrived, Ezekiel Verdugo was “beyond help,” police said.

Through surveillance, police saw several people — including Ellzey — drag Verdugo’s body from an apartment, place it underneath a tree and cover it with branches, the complaint states.

A witness told police Verdugo was shot twice over an alleged theft of Ellzey’s basketball shoes and jerseys, according to the complaint.

The mother of Ellzey’s children told police after Verdugo was shot he “let out a scream” and leaned forward on the couch before Ellzey dragged Verdugo’s body out of the apartment, police said.

A witness said Ellzey also shot a woman in the arm, but did not kill her because “she agreed not to call the cops,” the complaint states. Ellzey later went home and buried the handgun in the backyard in the 8900 block of Camino Osito — about five miles from the apartment — where it remained buried for a week until Ellzey swapped it for an AR-15, which he later traded in for drugs, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Ellzey behind bars, saying he “applied a street justice for the theft of his property.”

“In doing so,” according to the motion, “he far outweighed the value of the property and disrespect accorded to him and killed the victim over it.”