Teens charged in robbery-turned-homicide of 19-year-old

Police arrested 14- and 15-year-old boys in the fatal shooting of a young woman during a July 4 robbery in Southeast Albuquerque.

Lorenzo Lovato and Micalas McClendon are each charged with an open count of murder, robbery and tampering with evidence in the death of Alana Gamboa, 19. Police say both Lovato and McClendon attend Albuquerque High School.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said detectives detained both teens on Thursday at an apartment complex in the university area.

He said they have been booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center.

“The investigation is ongoing,” Gallegos said.

In December, Lovato, 14, was charged along with several other teens in multiple armed robberies around Albuquerque, according to court records. Court records show prosecutors offered Lovato a plea deal in that case, and in March he was sentenced to a year of probation, which included completing the Gun Violence Prevention Program.

After Gamboa’s death, dozens took to social media mourning the loss and demanding that those responsible be caught. The reward offered by Crime Stoppers in the case reached $5,000 in recent days.

In a GoFundMe post, Gamboa was described as a recent high school graduate and “an amazing young woman who had her entire life ahead of her.”

”Her smile lit up a room... She was always very helpful and dedicated to doing something with her life,” according to the post.

Police responded just after midnight to the shooting near Columbia and Kathryn SE, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Officers found Gamboa shot to death inside her car with a gun, cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms near her body.

Detectives found bullet casings from Gamboa’s gun inside her car as well as casings from the shooter near the sidewalk outside, according to the complaint.

Police said they searched Gamboa’s phone and discovered she was going to sell drugs to someone who went by “lil benzo 505” on social media. Detectives linked Lovato to the social media account, and an informant told police Lovato set up the robbery and McClendon, 15, was “the shooter.”

Detectives searched Lovato’s phone and found messages between him and McClendon talking about robbing a woman in the days before Gamboa’s death, according to the complaint. Phone records also showed Lovato was at the scene when the shooting occurred.

Police said when they arrested Lovato and McClendon at Lovato’s apartment, they questioned McClendon about the shooting. McClendon told police that he, Lovato and another teen planned to rob Gamboa by showing her some money before grabbing the drugs and running away.

McClendon told police Gamboa pulled a gun out first and he pulled a gun from his sweater and fired at her before she could “shoot him,” according to the complaint. Police said Gamboa did shoot her gun at some point in the incident but McClendon’s retelling “was not consistent” with the evidence at the scene.