Key figure in crime ring pleads guilty
A 20-year-old who the District Attorney’s Office says helped run a criminal enterprise that terrorized the city pleaded guilty Thursday to charges including racketeering and faces up to 16 years in prison.
Dominic Jiminez was one of five accused of running over and fatally injuring Hector Aguirre, a local deacon who was trying to stop the group from taking his van in September 2016, according to court documents.
The murder charge Jiminez faced in that case was dismissed under the plea deal he accepted Thursday. The deal required Jiminez to plead guilty to a total of 13 charges, and it also resolved a separate racketeering case against him.
“Basically, they ran a criminal enterprise within the city involving
stolen cars, stolen firearms,” DA’s Office spokesman Michael Patrick said Thursday, referring to Jiminez and others charged in the March 2017 racketeering case. “Essentially, they were a group of young adults terrorizing the city.”
Jiminez’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
Jiminez is the final person accused in Aguirre’s death to plead. In relation to that case, he pleaded guilty to taking a vehicle, conspiracy, tampering with evidence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Aguirre had been working at a home in northwest Albuquerque when he heard his van start. He held onto the windshield wipers to try to stop the group from stealing it, but let go when someone pointed a gun at him, police said.
As to the racketeering case, Jiminez pleaded guilty to crimes including aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, conspiracy and racketeering.
Lanise Padilla admitted last month to charges including unlawful taking of a vehicle and conspiracy, and was placed in the custody of the state Children, Youth and Families Department for a period not to exceed one year, according to court documents.
Daniel Lee Sandoval and Xavier Montoya have both pleaded to second-degree murder in Aguirre’s death. Montoya was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and Sandoval is facing up to 30 years.