Inset: Crystal Aguilar (Metropolitan Detention Center). Background: Johncock Ave. in Albuquerque, N.M. (Google Maps).
A New Mexico mom who let her teenage sons throw a graduation party that ended with a fatal shooting at her home will avoid jail time.
Crystal Aguilar, 41, pleaded no contest to selling or giving alcohol to minors and was sentenced on June 22 to 18 months of probation, according to online court records. The charge came in connection with a party that she allowed her teenage sons to throw at the family home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 31, 2025.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Aguilar told her sons they could invite 10 to 15 guests, but the crowd ballooned after the party was promoted on social media.
One guest, a 19-year-old boy, did not make it home that night.
Police said in a criminal complaint that witnesses said Aguilar put out a variety of alcoholic beverages that were consumed by several teenage guests, including the 19-year-old boy, who brought a gun with him.
According to the complaint, which was obtained by the Albuquerque Journal, the teenagers were not the only ones partaking in the alcoholic beverages.
Officers responded to Aguilar's home after receiving calls about a gunshot. Police said the 19-year-old had turned the gun on himself, and he died on the lawn in Aguilar's backyard. When officers spoke to Aguilar and her husband, both of them were believed to be intoxicated.
Aguilar told police that she had just stepped outside to "hype" up the young guests when she heard the gunshot, then saw the 19-year-old fall to the ground. A woman who came to the party with the teen said that he "appeared fine" earlier that day, and had told him not to bring a gun to the party "because the mother at the party said no guns were allowed." Police said that a gun found underneath the teen's body was reported stolen.
The same woman who came with the teen told police that she witnessed Aguilar doing shots and "letting people know they were okay to drink whatever was on the table." She provided police with cellphone videos she had taken at the party that showed the teen and Aguilar drinking.
Aguilar's attorney told the Albuquerque Journal that his client had not expected so many "unknown individuals" to show up at the house that night. He pointed out that it is not against the law in New Mexico for parents to serve their own children alcohol at home.
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