Murder suspect accused in several drive-by shootings months after homicide

A man awaiting trial in the 2022 homicide of an Albuquerque Academy student is accused in several other drive-by shootings in the months that followed.

Julian Prieb, 20, is charged with seven counts each of shooting from a motor vehicle and unlawful carrying of a handgun by a person under 19, and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Prieb, who was 18 at the time of the alleged shootings, is currently awaiting trial in the December 2022 death of 18-year-old Jada Gonzales. He has been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in that case since November 2023.

Prieb was one of four teens charged in connection with Gonzales’ death.

Isaiah Espinosa was sentenced to 29 years in prison in Gonzales’ death, and Cruz Medina pleaded guilty in a deal offered by prosecutors. Jesse Parra, like Prieb, is awaiting trial.

Police say the group were kicked out of a party and then shot up the home, striking Gonzales.

Unlike Medina and Espinosa, Prieb wasn’t charged and arrested in Gonzales’ death until almost a year later. In the months between, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Prieb committed seven other drive-by shootings between May and June 2023. Nobody was injured in the shootings. Prieb’s family declined to comment.

In a pretrial detention motion, prosecutors said Prieb “was associated with other actors in their gunplay... routinely shooting from a motor vehicle — extremely dangerous behavior.”

“The timeline, if drawn out long enough, will result in someone being wounded or killed,” according to the motion. “The inference in his situation being that (Prieb) was out for the excitement of it.”

While investigating the June 2023 death of Adrian Porras, 18, police identified Prieb as being involved in several drive-by shootings, according to the complaint. Police said Prieb was “eliminated as being a suspect” in Porras’ death but was found to be involved in other shootings with Jorge Luevano and Carlos Portillo, the suspects in Porras’ slaying.

On May 31, 2023, a man reported his car being shot up and Prieb, “claims responsibility” for the incident on social media, according to the complaint. Over the next few weeks, six other shootings played out, one at a house party and others in other areas around Albuquerque.

Police said a search of cellphone records showed Prieb in the area during each shooting, and messages indicating he was involved in some way or another. The bullet casings found at the scene of each shooting matched casings found at the scene of Porras’ death.