Inset: Elaina Gomez-Villeda (Albuquerque police). Background: Gomez-Villeda's 10-year-old son holds a gun before he allegedly shot a 16-year-old girl to death after a fight over loud music (KRQE).
A New Mexico mom told her 10-year-old son to grab a gun during an argument with a neighbor over music that turned into a fistfight before the boy fatally shot a teen girl, cops say.
Elaina Gomez-Villeda is charged with murder, conspiracy to commit a felony, child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, negligently making a firearm accessible to a minor, battery and receiving stolen property, jail records show.
Gomez-Villeda appeared in court for a detention hearing on Friday, during which prosecutors presented surveillance video that purportedly showed the shooting that killed 16-year-old Keinerlein Rangel in Albuquerque.
The defendant, wearing a Day of the Dead costume, was returning home with her son around 4 p.m. Oct. 31 after attending a Halloween event. While entering the apartment in the 200 block of Tennessee Street, she asked her neighbors to turn down the music "just a little bit."
This led to an argument that turned physical. Keinerlein and her mother started scuffling with Gomez-Villeda and the boy, according to the video. The boy ran into the apartment after his mother allegedly asked him to "get the gun," according to a courtroom report from local Fox affiliate KRQE. He came back out with the gun and raised it, the video showed.
"The defendant is heard saying … 'he's going to shoot you, look he's going to shoot someone,'" Albuquerque police Det. Chase Jewell testified.
The boy fired one shot that didn't hit anyone, then a second that struck and killed Keinerlein, Jewell told the court.
After the shooting, Gomez-Villeda and the boy allegedly went back inside the apartment.
Arriving police officers heard a gunshot from inside the apartment. Gomez-Villeda allegedly came outside holding a gun, and one officer shot at her but missed. She dropped the gun and cops took her into custody.
In an interview with police, the defendant allegedly said she was the one who fired the shot in the apartment. She said Keinerlein's father was trying to force his way inside. She called 911.
"I thought we were gonna die; these people, they do it a lot, and I didn't think I was gonna be the target, but it is what it is," she said, according to ABQRaw.com.
She also reportedly texted her husband, "I'm probably going to jail right now."
Prosecutors noted during Friday's hearing that the defendant did not ask the boy to call 911 or put the gun down. Jewell also noted that it appeared the boy had some prior training with the gun.
Gomez-Villeda's attorney, Roberta Yurcic, had a different view of the situation.
"Despite the state really wanting those words to have been spoken, they're not, by the detective's review, she never tells him to shoot," she told the court.
Judge Joseph Montaño ordered Gomez-Villeda to remain behind bars without bond.
"The fact that a 10-year-old is able to manipulate a revolver in the fashion in the video," he said. "How can the court fashion conditions of release for circumstances like this?"
Authorities have not decided whether to charge the 10-year-old boy.