Woman charged in helping dispose of SUV used in 11-year-old's shooting death

Albuquerque police have arrested a woman who they say helped dispose of an SUV used in the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy last year outside Isotopes Park.

Janae Garcia, 22, was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday and charged with tampering with evidence in the Sept. 6 death of Froylan Villegas.

Detectives say Garcia helped her boyfriend Jose Romero and Nathen Garley get rid of the SUV they allegedly used in the shooting after driving it to Arizona.

Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Garcia behind bars, saying she is “dangerous and should be held for trial.”

“(Garcia) was part of a homicide coverup,” according to the motion. “She knew exactly what had transpired and engaged in the disposal of the vehicle used to kill someone and wound another.”

Garley, 22, Romero, 23, and Daniel Gomez, 27, are each charged with an open count of murder, attempted murder, shooting from a vehicle, conspiracy and child abuse charges in connection with Villegas’ death.

At the time, Villegas’ death marked the second fatal shooting of a child in Albuquerque in less than a month and spurred Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to declare gun violence a public health emergency — while enacting a short-lived ban on carrying firearms publicly in Bernalillo County along with other measures.

Police said detectives have since learned Garley possibly helped get rid of the guns used to kill the other child shot in that span, 5-year-old Galilea Samaniego, as part of a gang feud.

Police say a separate simmering gang feud sparked the shooting that killed Villegas. Garley, Romero and Gomez ran into a rival at the Isotopes game by chance, according to police. The group then mistook the truck occupied by Villegas for the one their target had left in.

Police say Garley stood up in the sunroof of the Dodge Durango Hellcat and fired 14 bullets into the pickup, killing Villegas and leaving his cousin paralyzed.

Through multiple informants, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, detectives learned what happened to the SUV and tied Garley to the shooting of Samaniego.

An informant told police that after Villegas’ death, Garcia, Romero, Garley and Garley’s girlfriend took the Dodge Hellcat to Estancia before driving in multiple vehicles to Phoenix, according to the complaint. The group was joined by others in Phoenix, where they stayed at a resort and bought large quantities of fentanyl to sell back in Albuquerque.

Detectives found photos on Garcia’s phone, according to the complaint, showing the group partying and her and Romero “in possession of vast amounts of money.”

Police said the informant told them one member of the group shipped fentanyl from Phoenix to Albuquerque concealed in ibuprofen bottles. One day, Garcia, Garley, Romero and others left the hotel with the Hellcat SUV and returned without it.

It is unclear what happened to the SUV.

As Garley and his girlfriend made their way back to Albuquerque, the pair were caught with 22 pounds of fentanyl during a traffic stop, according to the complaint. The informant told police Garcia was “very much” involved in Garley and Romero’s narcotics dealings and knew they killed Villegas.

Police said another informant told them Garley helped Jose Luis Ramirez, 18, get rid of the guns used to kill Samaniego at a home that served as “a drop location for firearms that had been used in shootings.”

Ramirez and four others were charged in Samaniego’s death, allegedly spurred by a high school feud. Police say the group was targeting someone else when they fired into a mobile home in Southwest Albuquerque, a stray bullet killing the girl as she slept.

Police said a search of Romero and Garley’s social media accounts turned up messages between the pair and those charged in Samaniego’s death, sharing photos of the guns used in the shooting before it had happened. Detectives then found messages from Garley to the mother of his sons, three days after Samaniego was killed, that “he deserves everything that comes to him and that he has done something that is now all over the news.”

The mother of Garley’s children told police he had messaged her that “he cannot look at his little sister without feeling some way” after Samaniego was killed, according to the complaint.

“She thought that (Garley) was trying to get out of watching their sons again. That (Garley) would come up with excuses to keep (from) babysitting their children,” the complaint states.

Detectives tested the bullet casings from the Samaniego shooting and found they matched casings from another shooting in which Garley was a suspect.