{"id":24024,"date":"2025-01-14T22:07:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T05:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drive-by-shooting-suspect-receives-18-year-sentence\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:46:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:46:59","slug":"drive-by-shooting-suspect-receives-18-year-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drive-by-shooting-suspect-receives-18-year-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive-by shooting suspect receives 18-year sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"\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 Farmington teen was sentenced to 18 years in prison after admitting his involvement in the 2023 drive-by shooting that left a Farmington man dead.<\/p>\n

Bryce Trujillo, 19, entered an Alford vs. North Carolina plea admitting in a Jan. 14 hearing there was enough evidence to prosecute him of second-degree murder and brandishing of a firearm in connection to the Oct. 19 drive-by shooting that resulted in the death of Ethan Thompson, 23, of Farmington.<\/p>\n

Trujillo said he did not have much to say, but he apologized to Thompson\u2019s family and to his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just everything can change overnight, but I\u2019m sorry and hope God would be with all of us \u2013 his family and my family,\u201d Trujillo said.<\/p>\n

Trujillo did not state his guilt in court, but admitted to 11th Judicial District Judge Curtis Gurley that he agreed with the facts of the case presented by Assistant District Attorney Michael Sanchez.<\/p>\n

Trujillo was a passenger in a car driven by Emilio Hilliard, 20, of Aztec, who drove the white sedan through the Gooding Lane neighborhood near West Main Street.<\/p>\n

\"Bryce
Bryce Trujillo, 18, of Aztec, was arrested and charged in connection to the Oct. 19, 2023, drive-by shooting that killed a 23-year-old Farmington man.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Anfernee Antone and Thompson were walking on Gooding Lane, 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

Antone did not tell police that Trujillo had an \u201caltercation\u201d with Thompson just prior to the shooting, Assistant District Attorney Michael Sanchez said in court.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said Trujillo \u201chaving, access to a handgun in the vehicle, pointed it out of the vehicle, brandishing that handgun with the intent to frighten or harm the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trujillo then \u201cshot a man (Thompson) in the face and killed him,\u201d Sanchez said. He added that \u201c18 years doesn\u2019t seem like a long time\u201d for the crime committed.<\/p>\n

\"Farmington
Farmington Police investigate a fatal shooting Oct. 19 off Gooding Lane in west Farmington.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cMy brother didn\u2019t deserve this,\u201d Autumn Thompson told the court. \u201cI want to know why my brother had to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson said her brother \u201cnever had a fair life.\u201d They were raised by their grandmother after their youngest sibling was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she got the news\u201d of Ethan Thompson\u2019s death, \u201cshe stopped responding to people,\u201d Autumn Thompson said, adding that on Dec. 19, her grandmother \u201cpassed away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Autumn Thompson said she has been left with \u201cnobody,\u201d and she feels \u201cso lost\u201d without her brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthan wasn\u2019t violent. Ethan was so happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Autumn characterized Trujillo as a \u201cspoiled brat,\u201d someone who was \u201cthrowing gang signs on Facebook thinking you are cool. That\u2019s not cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trujillo\u2019s mother, Kathleen Trujillo, said her son \u201cis not a spoiled brat,\u201d but was someone \u201cacting young and dumb,\u201d when he killed Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son is very loving. He is the baby of the family,\u201d she said, adding that before the shooting, Trujillo had a scholarship for baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cChoose your friends wisely. They will turn on you. One minute they are your homies and then they will turn on you,\u201d Kathleen Trujillo said, adding that she misses and loves her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sentenced too as a family,\u201d she said after apologizing for his actions.<\/p>\n

Defense Attorney Michael Jones stated that Trujillo made a \u201cstupid choice,\u201d \u201cis regretful\u201d and has taken responsibility for the homicide.<\/p>\n

Gurley sentenced Trujillo to 15 years in the Department of Corrections on the second-degree murder charge and enhanced that by three years, because a firearm was used.<\/p>\n

Gurley also utilized the statute for committing a serious violent offense, which he said, \u201crelates to the ability to earn meritorious reductions\u201d to time served. \u201cIt will be at an 85% rate for each day you serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trujillo will have two years of parole upon his release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trujillo enters plea agreement, apologizes for actions<\/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-24024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78364,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24024\/revisions\/78364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24024"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}