Trial begins for two men charged in teen's shooting death

Testimony began Thursday in the trial of two men accused of fatally shooting an Albuquerque teenager during what prosecutors described as a plan to rob the youth.

Ryan John Baca, 28, and Rashawd Duhart, 27, each are charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 13, 2020, shooting death of 19-year-old Andres Loera. The men are being tried together in 2nd Judicial District Court. The trial is scheduled through May 13 before Judge Bruce Fox.

Prosecutors allege that Baca and Duhart conspired with two others to lure Loera to a Northeast Albuquerque park around 3 a.m., purportedly to buy an ounce of marijuana from him for an agreed-on price of $180.

“However, the plan was never to purchase marijuana on Feb. 13, 2020,” Assistant District Attorney Christine Jablonsky said Thursday in opening statements.

Albuquerque police responded to a 911 call and found Loera slumped over in the driver’s seat of his SUV with a wad of cash in his hand in the 1800 block of Hoffman NE near Indian School and Pennsylvania, just east of Taylor Park, according to a criminal complaint.

An autopsy found he died of four gunshot wounds from two different guns, and a dozen shell casings littered the scene, it said.

“From the beginning, this was a robbery,” Jablonsky told jurors. “The defendants didn’t even have enough money to buy the marijuana they were there to buy because they never anticipated paying for it.”

Instead, both men opened fire on Loera’s vehicle, she said.

Baca’s attorney, Edward Bustamante, said in opening statements that Baca had no intention of robbing Loera, who had been paid $80 and still had the cash in his hand when police found him.

“If you are going to rob someone, you don’t put down a down payment of 80 bucks to commit a robbery,” he told jurors.

Bustamante also argued that a key witness for the prosecution took a favorable plea deal in exchange for testimony incriminating his co-defendants.

Markell Barnes, 24, pleaded guilty last month to armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in connection with Loera’s killing. Barnes faces up to 12 years in prison. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

Prosecutors say that Barnes witnessed the killing and will testify that he, Duhart, Baca and a fourth person conspired to rob Loera.

Bustamante said Barnes initially told police that the group had only planned to purchase marijuana and had no plan to rob Loera.

“Mr. Barnes was facing first-degree murder, and even then he said it wasn’t a robbery,” Bustamante said. But Barnes’ story made a “dramatic shift” when he accepted the plea agreement, he said.

Prosecutors allege that a fourth co-conspirator, Serina Burks, contacted Loera on Facebook Messenger and set up the meeting.

Burks, 21, also allegedly drove a Chevy Malibu occupied by Baca, Duhart and Barnes when they drove to Taylor Park to meet Loera.

Burks is charged with first-degree murder in 2nd Judicial District Court. No trial date has been scheduled in the case.

All four were later pulled over in Sandoval County and found with marijuana stolen from a dispensary and the two guns used in Loera’s killing, according to a criminal complaint.