Third teen pleads guilty in 2022 mistaken identity killing

A third teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder in a 2022 fatal shooting at an Albuquerque convenience store that police described as a case of mistaken identity.

Adam Sedillo, 18, faces up to 10 years in prison for his role in the shooting death of 28-year-old Kayla Montaño in the parking lot of a Maverik gas station.

Sedillo is one of five youths — three males and two females — arrested in connection with Montaño’s killing.

Albuquerque police said Montaño apparently was unknown to her attackers, who mistook Montaño and her companions for others.

Montano was fatally shot moments after she, her fiancé, and several companions — including a 7-year-old child — pulled into Maverik to buy gas and snacks.

Sedillo’s sentencing is scheduled Oct. 17 before 2nd Judicial District Judge Courtney Weaks.

One of Sedillo’s co-defendants, Diamond Salazar, 21, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery, three counts of aggravated assault and other charges. Salazar’s trial is scheduled to begin Monday and continue through Aug. 13.

Two other co-defendants, Ty Ashton Gallegos, 18, and Estevan Damian Lucero, 16, each have pleaded guilty to a single count of first-degree murder in Montaño’s killing.

Gallegos was sentenced in July to 10 years in prison. Lucero faces up to 24 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled Sept. 18.

A fifth co-defendant, Caprice Sicilia, 20, has not been scheduled for trial but faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery, three counts of aggravated assault and other charges.

Judge Weaks is presiding in all those cases.

Prosecutor Collin Brennan said Sedillo, Gallegos and Lucero each was offered a plea agreement that would have allowed them to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for their testimony in Salazar’s trial, but all three rejected the deal.

Montaño and her fiancé, Johnathan Dematties, two other adults and a child were going to Topgolf when they stopped at about 8:40 p.m. March 25, 2022, at the Maverik gas station on Princeton NE near Comanche and Interstate 25.

Security video showed that as the group pulled up to a gas pump, three male gunmen hiding behind another gas pump appear to open fire on the SUV, according to the criminal complaint.

Montaño yelled “go, go, go” to her fiancé, the driver, who put the SUV in reverse but ran into a gas pump, the complaint said.

Police found Montaño dead in the passenger seat of the SUV. Dematties was struck in the back by a bullet and a second bulled grazed his head. The other three occupants of the SUV took cover and avoided injury, the complaint said.

The security video showed that the attackers piled into two vehicles and fled the gas station.