Man charged in double homicide on West Side

Sep. 3—Police arrested a man suspected of fatally shooting two people Friday night over a neighbor dispute at an apartment complex on Albuquerque's West Side.

John Paul Ballejos, 30, is charged with two counts each of murder and tampering with evidence in the deaths of Daniel Humphrey, 31, and Humphrey's aunt Sonia Tenorio, 46.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said detectives are also investigating whether Ballejos was involved in the May 31 double homicide of his uncle Hesiquio Cordova, 44, and Cordova's girlfriend Virginia Serna, 46.

He said after Friday's shooting, Ballejos was found at the Barelas home of his uncle in the 900 block of Eighth SW, where Cordova and Serna were killed months earlier.

Gallegos said SWAT officers responded to the home and convinced Ballejos to surrender. He said Ballejos was taken to a hospital to be treated for wounds he suffered in a fall before the arrest and will be booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Gallegos did not say why detectives thought Ballejos was connected to the double homicide of Cordova and Serna, but court records show Cordova filed a restraining order in 2020 against Ballejos, alleging that he threatened to kill the couple when he was living with them.

Court records show Ballejos has been arrested for battery, auto theft and aggravated battery against a peace officer. He was sentenced to probation in 2017 but had it revoked within months after testing positive for methamphetamine.

Friday's shooting was the second time in less than a week that a man and woman were fatally shot in the city. On Aug. 28, police responded around 5:20 a.m. to a shooting in the 9200 block of Marron Circle NE, near Lomas and Eubank. Police found Nicole Amaya, 33, and Bernabe Jurado, 49, dead from gunshot wounds.

Friday night's shooting brought the number of homicides investigated by the Albuquerque Police Department this year to 89. By this time in 2021, there had been 81.

Detectives believe the latest incident stemmed from a neighbor dispute.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court:

Police responded around 9:10 p.m. to reports of gunfire at an apartment complex in the 560 block of 59th NW, near Coors and Fortuna. Officers found Humphrey and Tenorio dead inside an apartment that was littered with bullet casings.

Police found the door to Humphrey's sister's bedroom had been shot at and kicked in but she wasn't home.

Surveillance video showed a man in a hooded sweatshirt shoot Humphrey twice in the head at the entrance to the apartment, walk inside and leave soon after.

The sister told police the man in the video was her upstairs neighbor, Ballejos. She said she rejected Ballejos when he tried to date her and, on July 11, Ballejos shot a bullet through the ceiling of her bedroom.

The sister said she reported the incident to police and the apartment manager and, as a result, Ballejos was being evicted. Police learned the vehicle Ballejos drove was registered to Cordova and went to Cordova's previous address looking for Ballejos.

Detectives saw Ballejos parked outside the house Saturday morning and surveilled him as he drove to Tingley Beach and back to the house, where he was eventually arrested.

Police located numerous reports regarding Ballejos since 2016, including four separate incidents when Serna, Cordova and Ballejos' ex-girlfriend told police he threatened to kill them or other family members.

In February 2020, a judge granted a restraining order filed by Cordova against Ballejos when he was living with his uncle and Serna, according to court records.

In the motion for the restraining order, Cordova wrote that Ballejos would use drugs and when asked to help with chores, would become violent, telling Serna, "just wait Virginia." Cordova wrote in the motion that Ballejos's behavior grew erratic and he would talk to people who weren't there but refused to seek help when confronted by relatives.

Cordova wrote Ballejos "constantly reminds us that he has murdered someone before and got away w/self defense, and that he will not be afraid to kill us." Cordova wrote he lets Ballejos live with him out of respect for the feelings of Cordova's 83-year-old father.

"But I no longer want him in or around my home as he is manipulative and dangerous," Cordova wrote. "I work hard and feel he drains anyone who helps him. It needs to stop so that he may become accountable."

In November 2020, according to police, Serna reported Ballejos had "killed someone in the past and evaded prosecution" and told her "he was not afraid to do it again."

Then, on May 31, police responded around 10:30 p.m. to Cordova's home after someone called 911 and reported that their parents had been shot, according to police.

Officers found Cordova and Serna dead inside the home from multiple gunshot wounds.