Murder trial starts for teen accused of killing basketball star JB White

May 5—Estevan Montoya was an uninvited and unwelcome guest at the house party where he is accused of fatally shooting promising Santa Fe High School basketball player Fedonta "JB" White in August 2020, prosecutors said Wednesday as a murder trial for 18-year-old Montoya got underway.

Following months of coronavirus pandemic-related lockdowns, a group of friends, "mostly young ladies," had planned the party through a group text, Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Padgett Macias told jurors in her opening statement.

It was supposed to a fun summer party, she said. It was supposed to be chill, "no drama ... good vibes."

One witness testified she thought they might play some board games at the party, which teen hostess Faith Alva was throwing in her family's unoccupied home, still under construction in Chupadero.

Montoya, charged with first-degree murder and other counts, "knew they were not invited, and they came anyway," Padgett Macias said. "And they came with guns. [Montoya] walked into that party knowing he had the power to bring anyone to their knees."

The party started around 10 p.m., and Montoya and his companions "came in commanding" around midnight, the prosecutor told jurors.

They took over the Bluetooth and started playing "homemade, non-mainstream rap music."

Nobody wanted to listen to it, Padgett Macias said, but everyone knew to tread lightly around Montoya and his friends.

Before long, she said, two young men in Montoya's group were fighting.

One was "out of control" — physically and verbally aggressive — out on the porch as dozens of other teens looked on.

The party had grown larger, she said, thanks to social media.

That's when 18-year-old White — who was about to leave high school a year early to take a spot on the University of New Mexico's basketball team — spoke up, the prosecutor said.

She said he complained about the noise the two other boys were making on the porch.

"He said, 'Shut that goofy kid up,' " Padgett Macias said. "[White's] comment was all that [Montoya] needed. That was his trigger."

Montoya, then 16, confronted White, saying, " 'You don't want this smoke,' " the prosecutor said. "His words were more than words. They were a threat. His words were inviting a fight."

Montoya might have been backing up, Padgett Macias said, "but he was not running away. He was inviting JB into his space. He was not scared of JB, and you could see it in his eyes."

In a tragic decision that changed White's fate, she said, the basketball star didn't back down when approached by Montoya.

"Saying something to the effect of 'What's good?' [White] pulls up his pants, takes off his glasses and tucks in his chains," Padgett Macias told the jury.

The two boys squared off, she said. Montoya swung and missed; White swung and missed. No one was getting beat up, she said. No one was bloody. No one was getting dominated.

Then White swung, and Montoya shot, she said.

Montoya stood frozen for a moment and then hopped over a low fence and ran down the driveway, the gun still held high over his head, the prosecutor said.

Eighteen seconds later, he was heard firing a second shot.

The prosecutor told jurors the state will put 18 partygoers on the stand in the next two weeks to testify about the version of events she outlined.

Montoya's defense attorney, Dan Marlowe, said Wednesday the state's account is skewed and isn't supported by physical evidence.

"One of the first things I heard from the state's opening statement was that the South Side Goons, or the group of fellows [Montoya] showed up with, were uninvited," Marlowe said when it was his turn to address the jury. "Then she says in the same breath it was on social media. This was a huge party. So the line that they were uninvited may be true — but everyone was invited."

There was "drinking like you wouldn't believe" at the party, Marlowe said. "There was dope there."

A toxicology report will show White was drunk and had been smoking marijuana, he added.

Montoya wasn't instigating a fight with the much larger White, Marlowe said; he was trying to "mellow him out" and keep him from getting involved in the shouting match between the other two boys.

"He goes up and says ... 'Don't get involved,' " Marlowe argued. "But [White] tucked his chains, pulled up his pants and went after [Montoya]."

The defense attorney told the jury, "You're gonna hear that [Montoya] turned around and shot [White] in the chest. Based on the path of the wound ... that's impossible."

The physical evidence, specifically the angle of White's wound, supports Montoya's defense, Marlowe said: He was running away when he pulled the weapon out of his waist and shot behind him over his shoulder without looking.

"That's how you explain the path of the bullet," Marlowe said. "There was a person chasing him. It was a desperate shot, a panic shot, and it hit him. It's a bummer that it hit him. But it's not turning around and shooting him point blank. ... The path of the bullet shows you that's exactly what happened."

Marlowe told jurors Montoya was carrying a gun because one of his closest friends had been fatally shot just feet from him weeks before and he was terrified he would be next.

Montoya had been "holed up ... afraid he would be murdered" in the days leading up to the party, the defense attorney said. "So he went out and got a gun, as if a gun would do him any good. Stupidly enough, he thinks carrying a gun is going to save him ... but that's not the way it works."

What happened was a terrible tragedy, Marlowe said, but it was not a crime.

The state's first witness, Anna Hayes — one of the young guests at the party — testified she was standing on the porch attempting to get Snapchat video of the first altercation between the other boys when she inadvertently captured the sound of the shot that killed White.

Her camera was pointed at the porch, she said, when she heard the shot behind her and swung around. She captured the sound of the shot being fired, her own startled scream and a jerky snippet of footage showing people running away, scrambling for safety.

"The shot went off, and I knew it was something bad because as soon as I turned around, everyone's face looked really shocked," she said.

She started to run, Hayes testified under questioning from Chief Deputy District Attorney Blake Nichols, "because I wanted to not die. I think it might have been the most serious moment of my life."

Others were scared, too, she said, and "running for their lives. I was so scared I ran into the bushes and tripped down the hill."

Hayes said she "accidentally" posted the footage to Snapchat as she was running. When pressed by Nichols, she admitted there was another reason she shared the video.

"I didn't know if we were going to make it out alive," she said. "I didn't know what was going to happen."

Hayes was one of three partygoers who took the stand Wednesday for the state.

Another, 23-year-old Christopher Gamboa, testified he had volunteered to act as unofficial party control, helping Alva keep watch over her parents' property, and ended the evening attempting to apply pressure to the gunshot wound on White's chest.

Gamboa said he hadn't witnessed the altercation between Montoya and White but attempted to render aid to White afterward.

"He just kept saying, 'Please don't let me die, man; please don't let me die,' " Gamboa testified.

Jurors also heard several hours of testimony from then Santa Fe County Crime Scene Technician Shari Vialpando — now an employee of the District Attorney's Office — and viewed video and photographs she'd taken at the scene.

The trial — which is expected to last through May 18 — is scheduled to resume Thursday with Marlowe's cross examination of Vialpando.