Man pleads in 2022 shooting death at South Valley Circle K

Adrian Paul Sanchez entered a plea agreement this week in the 2022 shooting death of 23-year-old Timothy Wayne Johnson, halting his trial on charges including first-degree murder.

Sanchez, 22, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and armed robbery in Johnson’s killing outside a South Valley convenience store, the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Sanchez faces up to 25 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Thursday. His attorney, Lisa Torraco, declined to discuss the plea deal Wednesday.

In an unrelated case, a jury convicted Sanchez last year of voluntary manslaughter and armed robbery in the May 5, 2022, shooting death of 29-year-old Jesus Lopez. Sanchez was sentenced to 19 years in prison in that case.

At a trial last year in the Lopez killing, Torraco argued that Sanchez shot Lopez in self-defense after Lopez pulled a handgun and attempted to carjack Sanchez’s car.

Prosecutors told jurors that Sanchez fatally shot Lopez, then stole his handgun, before boasting about the killing to friends on Instagram.

In the Johnson killing, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to the Circle K at Coors and Gun Club SW shortly after midnight on June 16, 2022.

Deputies found Johnson in the parking lot with gunshot wounds to his head and torso, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metro Court. Johnson died in a hospital.

Gloria Sanchez, 22, Adrian Sanchez’s sister and co-defendant, told deputies that she had conspired with her brother to rob Johnson of a firearm, the complaint said.

Gloria Sanchez told deputies she allowed her brother to track her cellphone’s location and dropped Johnson off at the Circle K, where he was fatally shot, the complaint said.

Gloria Sanchez pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiracy to commit robbery and was sentenced to 18 months of probation, court records show. She also agreed to testify at her brother’s trial, according to her plea agreement.