Trial begins in killing of man who stood up for Downtown guard

Prosecutors told jurors on Tuesday that Patrick Saavedra first argued with an Albuquerque security guard, then fatally shot a homeless man who attempted to intercede.

The attorney made opening statements in the trial of Saavedra, 41, who is charged with first-degree murder in the 2021 shooting death of 38-year-old Michael Sanchez in Downtown Albuquerque.

Saavedra’s attorney countered that Sanchez pretended to point a gun at Saavedra as he approached Saavedra’s truck at in the moments before the killing.

The 2nd Judicial District Court trial is scheduled to continue through Friday before Judge Clara Moran.

Sanchez’s killing was preceded by a noisy argument between Saavedra and an Albuquerque security guard that drew the attention of other guards and brought Sanchez away from his nearby encampment, attorneys said.

“Patrick Saavedra wanted to kill someone,” prosecutor Josh Hasyniec told jurors. “He did just that when he shot the decedent in this case, Michael Sanchez, in the chest, in the heart, with a .45-caliber bullet fired at point-blank range.”

Hasyniec told jurors that Saavedra shot Sanchez as the unarmed homeless man stood at the passenger window of Saavedra’s pickup on Dec. 9, 2021.

“Tragically, engaging with the defendant was Mr. Sanchez’s fatal mistake,” Hasyniec said. Saavedra earlier had threatened to shoot a security guard in the face, he said.

Saavedra’s attorney, Robert Cooper, acknowledged that Saavedra fired the fatal shot after Sanchez emerged from his encampment near First and Gold SW.

But Cooper told jurors that moments before the shooting, Sanchez stood in the middle of the intersection pretending to hold a gun and yelling, “You better get away from my security guards.”

“He’s one step away from the truck and he puts his hands out” as though holding a gun, Cooper said. Sanchez later put his hands on the passenger door of Saavedra’s pickup, and the two men argued, he said.

Saavedra saw a shimmer from Sanchez’s jewelry, leading Saavedra to believe that the homeless man was holding a gun, Cooper said.

“Patrick (Saavedra) is going to tell you why he felt that his life was in danger” when he testifies later in the trial, Cooper told jurors.

Albuquerque police responded shortly before midnight and found Sanchez lying in First NW with a gunshot in his chest.

Albuquerque metro security guards told police that the gunman was driving a white pickup that fled the area after the shooting.

A guard provided police with a photo of the truck that showed the truck’s license plate number. Police traced the license plate to a home in a West Side neighborhood, near Los Volcanes and Coors, where Saavedra was taken into custody early the next morning.

The night of the killing, Saavedra met with a friend at Knockouts bar on Central, where he drank a number of strong drinks called “trash cans” before stumbling out to his truck near midnight, Cooper told jurors.

Saavedra was “very intoxicated” when he found a parking citation on his truck, Cooper said. Minutes later, Saavedra began following a city-owned vehicle driven by a security guard whom Saavedra assumed had issued the citation, he said.

This led to a shouting match between Saavedra and the security guard, Jeremy Aragon, as the two men sat in their vehicles on First Street in front of the Alvarado Transportation Center, witnesses testified Tuesday.

The noisy chatter on Aragon’s radio prompted another guard, Cristobal Hernandez, to exit the Alvarado Transportation Center and stand beside Aragon’s vehicle, where he took multiple photos of Saavedra and his truck.