Trial begins for man charged with fatal shooting in grocery store parking lot

Kristopher Gonzalez fired in self-defense and inadvertently shot and killed a close friend after gunfire broke out in a grocery store parking lot in 2021, his attorney told jurors Monday on the first day of his murder trial.

Gonzalez, 29, faces first-degree murder and other charges in the shooting death of Jose Garcia outside an Albertsons parking lot in the South Valley on Feb. 21, 2021. The trial is expected to continue through Friday before 2nd Judicial District Judge Joseph Montano.

Prosecutors allege the fatal encounter began with a dispute over a broken windshield that escalated into killing when Gonzalez “sprayed the parking lot” with gunfire, killing Garcia and injuring a second man. Police found 11 shell casings in the parking lot after the killing.

“This case kind of starts in an unusual way,” prosecutor Lawrence Hansen told jurors. “It starts with a broken windshield on a young lady’s car.”

Robert Aragon, Gonzalez’s attorney, told jurors in opening statements that Gonzalez and Garcia were best friends and had arrived at the grocery store parking lot in Gonzalez’s car for a meeting with a group of other men. Gonzalez suspected the meeting was in fact a continuation of a drug deal that had gone badly earlier that day, Aragon said.

The meeting went smoothly at first until two other men, whom Aragon described as drug dealers, arrived. In the gun battle that followed, Gonzalez accidentally shot his friend in the back, Aragon said.

Aragon rejected the allegation that the dispute began over a broken windshield. Aragon also told jurors that prosecutors gave a witness in the case a favorable plea deal on a felony drug charge in exchange for his testimony in Gonzalez’s trial.

Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Garcia fatally shot once in the back in the parking lot of the Albertsons grocery store in the 1600 block of Rio Bravo SW, near Isleta.

Prosecutors told jurors in opening statements Monday that Gonzalez had demanded payment of $1,000 in compensation from two men he claimed had broken the windshield of his sister’s car.

To ensure payment, Garcia took possession of “property” belonging to the two men, which he agreed to hand over in exchange for the $1,000 payment, Hansen told jurors.

After one of the men accused Gonzalez of withholding some of his property, Gonzalez responded by pulling a weapon and shooting, Hansen said.

Gonzalez also faces charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery for allegedly shooting a second man in the head. That man, Jacob Maes, survived the injury and is expected to testify in Gonzalez’s trial.