Two men sentenced to life plus 46 years in fatal shooting near Isotopes Park

Tatiana Villegas, her 11-year-old cousin Froylan and his mother had just watched the Reno Aces squeak out a win over the Isotopes. As the family drove away from the ballpark, more than a dozen bullets ripped through their truck.

The bullets pierced Tatiana's spine and struck Froylan in the head, killing him almost instantly and leaving her paralyzed. The September 2023 shooting dominated headlines and, within days, led Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to declare gun violence a public health emergency.

And on Wednesday, 2nd Judicial District Court Judge Emeterio Rudolfo sentenced Nathen Garley, 22, and Jose Angel Romero, 24 — who mistook the Villegas' truck for that of a gang rival — to life plus 46 years in prison.

"There's so much tragedy to go around, it's almost indescribable," Garley's attorney, Thomas Clark, said after the sentencing hearing.

A jury in February convicted Garley and Romero of first-degree murder and eight other felonies in the Sept. 6, 2023, killing that shocked Albuquerque and came on the heels of a drive-by that left a 5-year-old girl dead on the West Side.

The sentencing hearing led to further anger and emotion Wednesday when Romero smirked and made odd facial expressions after he was led into the Downtown courtroom.

"I have to sit here in this courtroom and see Jose (Romero) smirking and making these faces," said Tatiana Villegas, who spoke from a wheelchair during the victim-impact portion of the hearing. "He has no sympathy, no hurt for what he took from us."

The brazen attack on Avenida Cesar Chavez SE, just west of University, prompted Lujan Grisham to sign the executive order on gun violence, imposing a short-lived ban on publicly carrying firearms in Bernalillo County.

Prosecutors said in closing arguments that Garley thought he was settling a score with a rival when he stood up in the sunroof of a Dodge Durango and fired 16 gunshots at the Villegas family's Dodge Ram pickup, damaging Tatiana Villegas' spine.

During the weeklong trial, Tatiana Villegas wept as she told jurors she heard, "boom, boom," and saw a man standing through the sunroof of a black SUV firing a rifle at her pickup.

Tatiana testified that the gunshots "felt like an electric shock in my body and I just remember not being able to move my legs and I couldn’t breathe."

Rudolfo sentenced each man to life in prison for the first-degree murder convictions, which carry a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison. Rudolfo sentenced each man to an additional 46 years in prison for their remaining eight felony convictions, including conspiracy, aggravated battery, shooting at or from a motor vehicle and other felonies.

"We're very glad that the judge didn't go easy on them, and now we can have peace and close this chapter and move on with our lives," Tatiana Villegas said after the sentencings. "We finally got justice for Froylan and for me."

In addition to Wednesday's sentence, Garley faces an additional 20 years in prison from an earlier federal drug conviction.

"I think when I look at Nathen (Garley), I know what he feels and it's just devastation, tragedy and sorrow," Clark said.

Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Hansen said during the trial that Garley and Romero were motivated by anger at a man they encountered earlier at Isotopes Park and organized a "hunting party."

The two men mistook the Villegas family's pickup for a similar vehicle driven by the man involved in the earlier dispute and opened fire, Hansen told jurors.

"It used to be that if you stayed away from certain areas — if you didn't hang out with certain people, you were safe," Rudolfo said during the sentencing hearing. "Sadly, it's gotten to where things like this — you go to a ball game and these things happen, and it's a tragedy."