Jury convicts man in 2021 slaying at Albuquerque motel

Feb. 12—A jury on Monday convicted Christopher Maldonado of first-degree murder for what prosecutors described as a robbery-turned-homicide at a Northeast Albuquerque motel in 2021.

Maldonado, 36, was found guilty of fatally shooting 33-year-old Rony Carrera-Flores during a robbery Maldonado had planned with two others.

Maldonado's attorneys told jurors in closing arguments on Monday that police identified the wrong man as the killer, who wore a mask that obscured his face during the robbery.

Carrera-Flores and a friend had been travelling from Los Angeles to Chicago with large quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl when their car broke down in Albuquerque, requiring them to remain here for about a week before the killing, Maldonado's attorneys told jurors last week.

The 2nd Judicial District Court jury deliberated less than three hours before finding Maldonado guilty of first-degree felony murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.

The murder conviction requires Maldonado to serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. District Judge Brett Loveless has not scheduled his sentencing hearing.

Assistant District Attorney Ashlee Mills told jurors Monday that Maldonado knew Carrera-Flores and the friend were drug dealers, which contributed to his decision to commit the robbery.

Maldonado "burst into someone else's hotel room with gun out and ready to fire," Mills said in closing arguments. Maldonado "had his gun out and ready to use and instantly pointed it at Rony when he entered the hotel room."

The gun fired when Carrera-Flores attempted to push the pistol away from his face, Mills told jurors. Maldonado then fled the motel with a necklace and a box containing a hoverboard, she said.

Albuquerque police found Carrera-Flores fatally shot in the face on April 2, 2021, in a room at the Travelodge motel, 601 Paisano NE, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

Security video showed that a white sedan had pulled up beside the motel around 6 a.m. when a man in a white shirt scaled a fence and walked toward Carrera-Flores' motel room.

About 15 minutes later, the man in the white shirt ran from the motel carrying a box and tossed it over the fence, where police later retrieved it, the complaint said.

Maldonado's attorney, Mark Earnest, argued that police failed to investigate another man whose fingerprints were found on the box. That man has a prior criminal record in Bernalillo County, he said.

Prosecutors also failed to explain why Maldonado's fingerprints were not found on the box, he said. Earnest told jurors that the second man had robbed and killed Carrera-Flores.

"What remains is that Chris Maldonado's fingerprints are not on that box, and the shooter's are," Earnest told jurors.

Earnest also attacked the credibility of Maldonado's co-defendant, who testified that she had helped plan the robbery and identified Maldonado as the man who killed Carrera-Flores.

The co-defendant, Monique Montano, 34, pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to second-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in the same case and faces 15 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled on Friday.

Earnest told jurors that Montano may have offered testimony damaging to Maldonado in exchange for a favorable plea deal — a claim prosecutors rejected.