Second trial again ends in hung jury on 2nd-degree murder in cold-case shooting death

For the second time in nine months, a jury on Thursday failed to reach verdicts on charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in the trial of Jaycob Price in a 12-year-old shooting death.

But jurors found Price, 33, guilty of armed robbery resulting in the death of 26-year-old Julio Apodaca outside a Northeast Albuquerque apartment complex in 2013.

The 2nd Judicial District Court jury also found Price guilty of tampering with evidence in the shooting death.

Price faces a wide sentencing range of one to 21 years, Assistant District Attorney David Waymire said following the verdicts. District Judge Bruce Fox had not scheduled a sentencing hearing for Price.

No decision has been made about whether to retry Price on the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, Waymire said.

In September 2024, a jury acquitted Price of first-degree murder in Apodaca’s killing but failed to reach verdicts on charges of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, armed robbery and tampering with evidence, which allowed prosecutors to retry him on those charges.

Prosecutors said in closing arguments Wednesday that Price fatally shot Apodaca at close range in the front seat of a sport-utility vehicle while robbing him of about $100 worth of prescription pills.

Price’s attorney, Raymond Maestas, attempted to discredit the testimony of Price’s father, Joe Price, who told jurors this week that he saw his son fatally shoot Apodaca.

Joe Price, 59, was indicted in 2017 on charges of first-degree murder and armed robbery in Apodaca’s killing. He pleaded guilty in March 2019 to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and faces up to three years in prison, court records show. His sentencing has not been scheduled.

Maestas argued that Joe Price had faced a potential life sentence when he agreed to testify against his son.

“It’s fair to say that Joe Price was an utter disaster for the state,” Maestas told jurors. “He’s clearly self-interested. He’s not independent in any way and he took a sweetheart deal.”

Albuquerque police responded to a 911 call shortly before midnight on April 2, 2013, and found Apodaca lying next to a sport-utility vehicle outside an apartment complex in the 400 block of Fruit NE, near Broadway and Lomas.

Assistant District Attorney Casey McKim said in closing arguments Wednesday that Apodaca met Price in a parking lot for a drug transaction when Price shot Apodaca at close range in the front seat of an SUV.

McKim told jurors that the day Apodaca was killed, cellphone records show that he texted Price and asked if he wanted to buy prescription pills.

She also argued that DNA evidence suggested that Price had occupied the passenger seat of the SUV where Apodaca was shot. The DNA evidence also excluded other potential suspects, she said.

Maestas told jurors that police focused exclusively on Price and disregarded others who exchanged texts and phone calls with Apodaca the night of the killing. Maestas also said that the amount of DNA evidence found in the vehicle was too small to be conclusive.