Teens accused of gunning down homeless man near Albuquerque arroyo

Yahoo

19 hours ago

Jun. 5—When officers responded to gunfire along an Albuquerque ditch last month, a man living in a tent said he told off two teenagers firing guns in the area. Two hours later, two gunshots were detected near the tent and the homeless man was found shot to death the next morning.
Now, Joshua Curtis, 18, and Adrian Brown, 17, are behind bars in his death.
Curtis and Brown, both of Albuquerque, are each charged with an open count of murder, conspiracy, negligent use of a deadly weapon and unlawful carrying of a handgun in the May 1 death of Christopher Sturluson, 23. Brown is also charged with shooting at a dwelling or occupied building.
Curtis was arrested May 28 and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said in a news release. Brown was already behind bars at the Bernalillo County juvenile detention center when the charges were filed against him Tuesday.
It is unclear what Brown was already booked into jail for, but he was on juvenile probation at the time of the killing, 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office spokesperson Nancy Laflin said.
Two years ago, he was arrested for bringing a firearm to Sandia High School. A year later, Brown was arrested for another gun-related crime, District Attorney Sam Bregman said. It is unclear what that crime was or the outcome of the case.
"He received little to no consequences for his multiple juvenile arrests involving firearms," Bregman said in a statement Thursday, without elaborating on the specifics. "... He didn't learn anything except that he could get away with carrying a gun as he pleased. Now, a 23-year-old man is dead, and two teens are charged with murder."
Curtis and Brown were identified as the suspects through video surveillance and photographs, Gallegos said.
At 9:43 a.m. on May 1, APD responded to a call of a homicide in the 4600 block of Carlisle NE, north of Montgomery, near Interstate 25, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Arriving officers found Sturluson dead with blood on his face and neck, police said.
Officers had been in the area around 9:30 p.m. after gunfire was detected in the area, the complaint states. Sturluson told police he was in his tent when he heard shots and told two teens — later identified as Curtis and Brown — "to get the (expletive) out of here."
At 11:49 p.m., the ShotSpotter system detected two shots near the tent, the complaint states. A neighbor told police they saw two males run through an apartment parking lot, one carrying a gun, while the other picked up bullet casings.
The neighbor took photos of the males and uploaded them to evidence.com, where the public can share evidence of a crime, according to the complaint. One of the photos showed a man — later identified as Curtis — firing a gun minutes before the fatal shooting.
At an apartment complex near the crime scene, police spoke to two girls who said they saw Brown, Curtis and their girlfriends near the arroyo, according to the complaint. One girl said she heard Brown say, "That was me, I was shooting at the ditch with these idiots."
Police questioned Brown, who lived at the complex, but he denied shooting Sturluson and said the boys walked away after he yelled at them, the complaint states. Apartment surveillance cameras showed Brown and Curtis walking east of the tent about a minute before shots were fired, police said.
Police linked the casings from behind Sturluson's tent to casings found from the shooting hours earlier, according to the complaint. Detectives found that, after the incident, Brown sent Curtis a social media message, saying, "I didn't snitch you better not either."
Twenty minutes after the shooting, Curtis sent a woman a text, saying, "I'm not perfect or the best looking but I'll always defend you there's the proof I'll kill someone for you," police said.
Prosecutors filed a pretrial motion to keep Curtis behind bars, saying Curtis and Brown "showed a complete disregard for human life because they knew that Sturluson was camped where they were shooting."