Testimony begins in 2022 gas station killing

Prosecutors told jurors Monday that Diamond Salazar set in motion events that led to the 2022 mistaken-identity killing of a woman outside an Albuquerque gas station.

Salazar’s attorney responded that responsibility for Kayla Montaño’s killing lay with the three teenage boys who opened fire on a vehicle in the parking lot of a Maverik convenience store.

Salazar, 21, remained traumatized by a robbery earlier that day in which two masked gunman demanded money from Salazar and her companion at an Albuquerque park, said her attorney, Keren Fenderson.

“Diamond (Salazar) didn’t do anything wrong,” Fenderson said in opening statements. “She didn’t shoot the gun. She didn’t ask for this to happen and she didn’t wish for this to happen. She’s not guilty.”

Attorneys made openings statements Monday in Salazar’s trial on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery, three counts of aggravated assault and other charges in Montaño’s killing.

The trial is expected to continue through Aug. 13 before 2nd Judicial District Judge Courtney Weaks.

Prosecutor Collon Brennan told jurors that Salazar was angry about the robbery and summoned three male friends to meet her at the Maverik on Princeton NE near Comanche and Interstate 25.

Brennan said that security video will show Salazar pointing out Montano’s vehicle to her armed companions.

“When you look at that video, she points out that car,” Brennan said. “Diamond (Salazar) immediately ducks into her vehicle because she knows there is about to be a shootout.”

In the moments that follow, three teenage boys fire an estimated 30 rounds at a car occupied by five people they didn’t know, Brennan said.

“You take Diamond out of this, none of this happens,” he said.

Salazar is one of five youths — three males and two females — arrested in connection with Montaño’s killing on March 25, 2022.

Three teenagers have pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the killing.

Adam Sedillo, 18, faces up to 10 years in prison. Ty Ashton Gallegos, 18, was sentenced in July to 10 years in prison.

Estevan Damian Lucero, 16, faces up to 24 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled Sept. 18.

A fifth co-defendant, Caprice Sicilia, 20, testified Monday in Salazar’s trial and will continue her testimony Tuesday.

Sicilia has not been scheduled for trial but faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery, three counts of aggravated assault and other charges.

Montaño was fatally shot moments after she, her fiancé, her 7-year-old daughter and two other adults pulled into the Maverik to buy gas and snacks.

The group had stopped to buy gas and snacks on their way to Topgolf when three gunmen fired about 30 gunshots at their black sport utility vehicle, fatally shooting Montaño and seriously injuring her fiancé, Johnathan Dematties.

Sicilia testified Monday that in the hours before the killing, she and Salazar drove to an Albuquerque park to purchase a gun but were robbed by two men wearing masks. Among the items stolen was Sicilia’s cellphone.

Salazar later used a cellphone app, Live 360, to track the location of Sicilia’s phone and realized the robbers were in the vicinity of the Maverik, Sicilia told jurors.

She and Salazar were watching the app when it showed her phone pass by the Maverik, Sicilia testified.

A short time later, Salazar alerted the group that the car containing Sicilia’s phone had entered the parking lot.

“She started screaming, ‘That’s them,’” Sicilia told jurors. Sicilia said she took cover in the back seat of a car and heard 30 to 40 gunshots.

Fenderson argued that Salazar was traumatized by the robbery and terrified that the gunmen would arrive at the Maverik to hurt them.

Salazar “doesn’t know the make the model or the color of the vehicle,” Fenderson told jurors. “The only thing she knows is that Life 360 shows that Caprice’s phone is coming in their direction.”