ABQ RAW staff
POSTED 03/22/2022 3:40PM
Murder suspect Adrian Avila
Albuquerque –
Adrian Avila, 18, is accused of being involved in two separate homicides in the Albuquerque area. Avila had an arrest warrant issued by APD and he turned himself in on December 26th, 2021.
Avila and Anna Dukes concocted a social media scam to rob someone. Once they found a victim the victim’s brother came out of the house and confronted them about the ploy. Elias Otero, 24, was shot and killed in the incident. The murder happened February 11th, 2021.
The other incident was a robbery and homicide of a male victim on August 8th, 2020. According to a criminal complaint, witnesses said a group of individuals fired into a car to rob Donnie Brandon. Brandon was killed in the robbery.
A pre-trial detention hearing was held today on March 22nd, 2022 and Second Judicial Judge Stan Whitaker ruled Avila will be released before trial if a GPS monitor is available.
“My family is absolutely devastated and in fear of our lives. We fear for the lives of our community as long as Adrian Avila is out of jail,” said Alicia Otero, mother of murder victim Elias Otero.
Elias Otero was murdered in August 2021
Raúl Torrez Second Judicial District Attorney in a statement to ABQRAW said:
“It’s astonishing that someone can stand accused of not one, but two separate murders, and the judge not find the defendant dangerous enough to detain before trial. Because of today’s decision my office is filing an appeal with the Supreme Court as we believe that the public is at an extreme risk with the release of Adrian Avila.”
We reached out to the Albuquerque Police Department and they had no comment.
Avila will remain in custody until his ankle monitor GPS is approved. At the time of this article publishing Avila was still in custody at the Bernalillo County Detention Center.