Woman sentenced in boy’s 2021 death

LOS LUNAS — The third person in a trio of Monterey Park residents charged with the 2021 shooting death of an 11-year-old boy was sentenced last week in district court. 

On March 6, 2021, Joseph Hobbs was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

During a plea conference for Alexandria Tabora, 42, on the morning of Thursday Oct. 19, 13th Judicial Deputy District Attorney Robyn Simms told District Court Judge Cindy Mercer the plea agreement being offered wasn’t necessarily in the best interest of justice but it was necessary. 

The state’s eyewitness to the shooting, Celso Molina, cut off contact with the prosecution and local law enforcement, Simms told the judge, making a successful trial highly unlikely. 

Tabora’s trial was scheduled to begin on Oct. 23 but has since been canceled due to her acceptance of the plea agreement and subsequent sentencing. 

The shooting that led to Joseph’s death is tied to a 2019 incident when Tabora and Erik Carillo-Garcia went to Molina’s home on Carmel in Monterey Park, stole items and then threatened Molina with a handgun and wooden broom handle.  

According to online court records, Tabora was indicted on 13 counts in connection to that incident, including aggravated battery, false imprisonment, aggravated burglary, armed robbery and interference with communications.  

Carillo-Garcia was charged with seven counts, including armed robbery, false imprisonment and shooting at a dwelling. 

Both were given deferred sentences and put on supervised probation for five years, with Tabora’s probation to begin on March 8, 2021, while Carillo-Garcia’s began on Jan. 25 that year. 

Simms said because he testified in the 2019 case, Molina was labeled a “rat.”  

On March 6, 2021, Tabora and Carillo-Garcia went to Molina’s home, bringing Tabora’s son, Santos Mateo Garcia, with them. According to the prosecution, Molina was able to identify Tabora as the driver of the vehicle and Carillo-Garcia and Garcia as the people in the car who shot at his house, shooting and killing Joseph.  

After the shooting, Molina was the victim in several violent encounters, Simms said, including being run off the road and shot at, ambushed and beaten with a sledge hammer while walking on N.M. 314, and pistol whipped another occasion. 

Simms said initially Molina would respond to requests to appear in court, but never communicated directly with the DA’s office. Rather paperwork would be given to associates and friends to pass on to him, she said, which was successful for some time. 

“We know he’s in Valencia County. We believe we’ve identified where he is living,” she said. “But we have not been able to contact him and prepare him for trial.” 

Simms also said Molina suffered a traumatic brain injury during one of the attacks on him since the shooting, and there was concern about his ability to testify. 

“He has stopped communicating with law enforcement,” Simms said. “I know we are putting the court in an impossibly difficult situation.” 

Last week, Tabora changed her plea to guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and was sentenced to seven years to run concurrent with her sentence for the 2019 case. She received pre-sentence confinement credit of 843 days. 

Both of Tabora’s co-defendants entered into plea agreements and were sentenced before her plea conference. 

In June, Carrillo-Garcia, 26, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with three suspended, on charges of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, second and third degree felonies, respectively. He received 829 days — a little more than two years — pre-sentence confinement credit. 

Last month, Garcia, 24, received the same sentence but with eight years suspended for the same charges. He received pre-sentence confinement credit of 927 days. 

Simms said during Garcia’s sentencing, Jacob’s mother, Reva Armijo, asked the court to take into account his lack of a criminal record prior to the shooting and lessen his sentence. 

“She made that request, as a mother, because she believed he should have a second chance,” Simms said in court. 

Before she accepted the change in plea and agreement, Mercer made it clear she did not like the compromise but understood why it was necessary. She addressed Tabora before pronouncing sentencing. 

“Your son had never been in trouble before, but because of you and a decision you made, his future will forever be marred as a person convicted of a homicide,” Mercer told the defendant. “Your pettiness took the life of an innocent boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

“You are going to have to live with the fact that your decisions took the life of an innocent little boy,” the judge said, emphasizing the words ‘you’ and ‘your.’ 

Mercer also addressed Reva Armijo, who sobbed quietly through the hearing. 

“I hope you understand nothing this court does reflects how much value I place on your son’s life,” the judge said.