{"id":29478,"date":"2024-01-29T18:58:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T01:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jury-trial-set-in-drive-by-shooting-death-in-farmington\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:57:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:57:49","slug":"jury-trial-set-in-drive-by-shooting-death-in-farmington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jury-trial-set-in-drive-by-shooting-death-in-farmington\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury trial set in drive-by shooting death in Farmington"},"content":{"rendered":"Prosecution asks for five days in September\n

\"Farmington
Farmington Police patrol on Gooding Lane near the O'Reilly Auto Parts store, as detectives investigate a fatal shooting in the area about 11 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19. (Debra Mayeux\/Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A jury trial has been set in the case of an Oct. 19 drive-by shooting that left a Farmington man dead.<\/p>\n

Bryce Trujillo, 18, is facing a second-degree murder charge in the killing of Ethan Thompson, 23, of Farmington.<\/p>\n

It is alleged Trujillo was the passenger in a vehicle that had a \u201csmall-caliber carbine rifle\u201d in it. When he and alleged driver Emilio Hilliard, 19, of Aztec drove through the Gooding Lane neighborhood near West Main Street, it is believed Trujillo used that rifle to shoot Thompson in the head, killing him, according to court records.<\/p>\n

District Judge Daylene Marsh set the five-day trial to begin Sept. 16 after Deputy District Attorney Michael Sanchez asked to have the case \u201cpushed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not have all the discovery. \u2026 We are waiting for physical tests to be done and autopsy results,\u201d he said, adding that witness interviews are incomplete.<\/p>\n

According to court and police records, there were several to the shooting, but most identified only the vehicle \u2013 a white Ford Focus.<\/p>\n

Residents in the area told police \u201cthey observed a white Ford Focus with tinted windows drive past their residence,\u201d and they saw it \u201ctravel at a high rate of speed through the neighborhoods,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Another resident told police they saw the \u201cwhite sedan stopped for approximately two seconds next to the male lying on the ground and continued driving north,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Anfernee Antone reportedly was walking with Thompson on Gooding Lane, as they were heading to the Speedway Gas Station on Main Street. Antone reportedly told police \u201che observed a car turn south on Gooding Lane. The car backed up, and Antone heard shots,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked back and saw Thompson fall to the ground,\u201d according to the affidavit. Thompson reportedly \u201cwas shot in the face, and had an injury to the eye area,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

\"Bryce
Bryce Trujillo, 18, of Aztec, was arrested and charged in connection to the Oct. 19 drive-by shooting that killed a 23-year-old Farmington man.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Farmington Police Officer Waylon Wasson tracked the car using the Farmington Police Department\u2019s Real Time Crime Center, and Hilliard and Trujillo were stopped and arrested by New Mexico State Police near the Bisti Highway.<\/p>\n

The rifle was located in the back seat of the car, and Farmington Police Detective Sgt. Clay Raybon stated in the affidavit that \u201cit was put there by a person sitting in the front passenger seat,\u201d according to the affidavit. There also was \u201ca box of Fiochi 9 mm ammunition\u201d in the vehicle\u2019s back seat.<\/p>\n

Sanchez told the court firearms experts from out of town called to testify as well as people from the state forensic laboratories.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Michael Jones told the court he was \u201cshort on physical discovery\u201d at this point and concurred with the September trial date.<\/p>\n

Trujillo will be the only one going to trial in this case, as the DA\u2019s office dropped charges against Hilliard.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy District Attorney Dustin O\u2019Brien said it appeared that Trujillo acted on his own in the shooting, and Hilliard had no way of knowing it was going to happen.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last for five days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prosecution asks for five days in September<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80760,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29478\/revisions\/80760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29478"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}