Jury convicts Santa Fe woman of fatally shooting teen at neighbor’s party

When they looked back, Enriquez-Garay was on the ground. The young man, a 2018 graduate of Capital High School, said he had been shot. His brother and others rushed him to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

Melendez was accused of grabbing her loaded .22-caliber rifle and a stepladder to look over the 5-foot-tall cinderblock wall in the backyard of her Quapaw Street home, which faces the back of the Hopewell Street property. Prosecutors said she then fired at the group of partygoers.

Along with the charge of second-degree murder, Melendez was found guilty of negligent use of a firearm. 

Enriquez-Garay's family members wept at the courthouse as the verdicts were read. 

State prosecutors said they were happy with the outcome of the trial but expect an appeal from defense attorneys.

"I always view the jury as the community, and they did the right thing," prosecutor Ramon Carrillo said in an interview. "The extra time they took shows that they actually deliberated, they considered all aspects."

Police officers testified they found a .22-caliber rifle, .22-caliber ammunition and a bag of empty vodka bottles in Melendez's home, which sits just across an arroyo from the Hopewell property.

They also found spent shell casings in her yard near the wall. 

In an interview with police, Melendez told officers she had become frustrated with people living at the property after months of parties and loud generator noise that kept her from sleeping. 

She told Detective Jacob Parrish she was "spooked" by the men sitting in a circle behind her home on the night of the party, so she grabbed her rifle and climbed up on the ladder to peer over her wall. 

She said, however, she did not fire a gun and couldn't remember making a 911 call in which authorities said she told emergency dispatchers a "human sacrifice" had taken place. 

Her defense attorneys said they were disappointed with the jurors' decision to bypass the option of convicting Melendez of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

But they said they respect the jurors and their attention and time with the case.

"The trial was conducted very professionally by the court and the state," said defense attorney Shelby Bradley. "But, yes, there were things I was surprised about."

In his closing arguments Thursday, Bradley pointed out there was no physical evidence connecting Melendez to Enriquez-Garay's death.

No fingerprints, DNA or ballistics reports were conclusive enough to say she was the one who had fired the gun that killed the young man, the attorney said.

Bradley said Friday the defense plans to file an appeal.