Man to face murder charge in 2020 fatal shooting at SE Albuquerque apartment complex

A man has been arrested in connection with the 2020 shooting death of 28-year-old Nehemiah Lovato in Southeast Albuquerque.

Nathan Henson, 31, of Albuquerque, is being charged with an open count of murder, armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He is being held at an unidentified Oklahoma prison and awaiting extradition to New Mexico, Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said.

In 2022, Henson pleaded guilty to robbery after stealing a vehicle in Bernalillo County and was sentenced to four years in prison, according to court records.

In November 2023, Henson was arrested in Oklahoma. He is now wanted for absconding from parole in New Mexico for a 2016 felony, Gallegos said.

It is unclear when Henson was released from prison, but a photo from the New Mexico Corrections Department lists him as a parolee in November 2023.

A criminal complaint in the 2020 murder case has been sealed to the public until Henson makes it back to Albuquerque, Gallegos said.

On Oct. 25, 2020, according to a pretrial motion, APD responded to a ShotSpotter gunshot alert and a report of a shooting at an apartment complex in the 200 block of Valencia SE, near Central and Alvarado. When they arrived, a man — later identified as Lovato — was unconscious and not breathing. Albuquerque Fire Rescue tried reviving the man, but was unsuccessful.

The motion states that surveillance video showed a man — later identified as Henson — pull out a firearm and point it at Lovato when a second person grabbed Lovato’s backpack. During a brief struggle for the bag, Lovato was shot.

Detectives later identified Henson after comparing videos from the night of the shooting with a video taken from an incident at the same apartment on Sept. 17, 2020, according to the motion.