Testimony underway in alleged murder-for-hire killing in 2022

Testimony began this week in the trial of a man prosecutors allege paid a couple $15,000 in drugs and cash in 2022 to fatally shoot 43-year-old Gary Escareno while he was driving a car in Albuquerque.

Martin Jerome Trujillo, 58, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting at or from a motor vehicle in Escareno’s killing. The 2nd Judicial District Court trial is scheduled through Friday before Judge Clara Moran.

“This is a murder-for-hire case,” Assistant District Attorney Christine Jablonsky said Monday in opening statements. “We’re not going to tell you (Trujillo) pulled the trigger. But what I am going to tell you is that he is absolutely responsible for Gary Escareno’s death — just as responsible as the person who pulled the trigger.”

Albuquerque police found Escareno fatally shot in the head in the driver’s seat of a white Kia shortly before midnight on May 1, 2022, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. His car had crashed into a light pole at Tahiti and Morenci NE, near Candelaria and Juan Tabo NE.

Witnesses told police they heard gunfire and saw a man and a woman fleeing the scene.

Prosecutors allege that Trujillo believed Escareno had robbed him, Jablonsky told jurors. In revenge, Trujillo hired Freddy Granger and his girlfriend, Cassandra Dominguez, to kill Escareno in exchange for $15,000 in the form of fentanyl and methamphetamine, a vehicle and cash.

Granger, 43, pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder in Escareno’s killing and was sentenced to life in prison, which requires him to serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole.

Dominguez, 40, pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder and conspiracy in the killing and faces up to 18 years in prison, according to court records. Her sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

Trujillo’s attorney, Keren Fenderson, described Granger and Dominguez as “Bonnie and Clyde,” who committed crimes to support their drug habits and killed Escareno for their own reasons. Trujillo had no part in the killing, she said.

“All the players you will learn during this case have their own agendas, their own motives,” Fenderson said in opening statements. She described Trujillo and Escareno as “friends.”

Fenderson told jurors to remain skeptical of testimony from Dominguez, whom she described as the state’s key witness against Trujillo.

“It wasn’t until months and months and months later that she starts pointing the finger to Mr. Trujillo,” Fenderson said.

The prosecution’s case will rely heavily on electronic communications, including phone records and text messages between actors in the case, Jablonsky told jurors.