4 Suspects Charged With Murder In Alleged Mistaken Identity Revenge Shooting

Revenge, murder and mistaken identity. Three twists authorities said all came together in a killing in Mesilla Park. Dona Ana County Sheriff’s investigators said the first homicide of the year is also linked to the beating of a model student and football player at Onate High School.

Four suspects allegedly tried to avenge the attack. Now one man is dead, four suspects in jail and the student remains in the hospital, barely alive.

“They apparently are friends of Jerry Zamarripa, who was a victim of a brutal attack Sunday,” Lt. Michael Kinney of the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office, announced Thursday morning in a news conference. “They apparently felt justified in doing what they did to get revenge on someone else who had been injured.”

In a lengthy Statement of Facts, three of the four suspects reveal their plan of revenge to investigators. But this is a case where an innocent man became the victim of misplaced vigilante justice.

“First degree murder, shooting at an occupied or inhabited dwelling, tampering with evidence, conspiracy to commit shooting at an occupied or inhabited dwelling,” Lt. Kinney announced, as he read the charges each of the four suspects face in the shooting death of 57-year-old Julian Pena.

Aaron Valdivia, 23, Homero Avalos, 19, Myles Calderon, 17, and the alleged shooter, Johnny Ray Vallejos, 16, are each being charged the same. Under New Mexico state law, Dona Ana County District Attorney Amy Orlando said, anyone that helps, causes, or encourages is charged the same way as the one who actually pulls the trigger.

In this case, Pena apparently became the innocent bystander, investigators said.

Pena was watching wrestling in his mobile home on Watson Lane when Vallejos fired seven shots, one of them striking Pena in the head, investigators said. Another family member, unharmed, was in the home making dinner at the time, when she was startled by gunshots, investigators said.

“She heard what she thought were several loud knocks, so she went into the living room to ask Julian what the noise was and found him slumped on the chair, with blood on his head, and she realized he had been shot,” Lt. Kinney said.

According to the Statement of Facts, Calderon told investigators the group was very angry their friend, Jerry Zamarripa, was attacked over the weekend.

“They met and they were commiserating about what had happened to Mr. Zamarripa,” Lt. Kinney said. “During the course they discussed about getting revenge for what had happened to him, and later on in the evening they met again and decided at that point to go get him, who they believed to be responsible. And Mr. Pena truly is an innocent bystander. He is an innocent victim – he had absolutely nothing to do with any of these parties involved.”

Investigators learned from Valdivia, he pointed out Pena’s home to the others, thinking it was the residence of the person who beat Zamarripa but not knowing he was wrong.

“Mr. Vallejos and Mr. Calderon exited the vehicle and approached Mr. Pena’s trailer on foot but they apparently had the wrong residence,” Lt. Kinney said. “Mr. Vallejos had a rifle secretly hidden in the side of his clothing. He withdrew the weapon and fired several shots at Mr. Pena’s house and Mr. Pena truly is an innocent bystander.”

When the four suspects found out they had in fact targeted the wrong house, and shot and killed an innocent man, they showed no sign of remorse, investigators said.

According to the Statement of Facts, Avalos told investigators Calderon conspired with the others by sending a text message that read, “Lets go get these guys.”

“In 17 years of being a prosecutor, you always hear family members say well, ‘I want to go out and get even or hurt the person,’ and of course we tell them just trust us, let us do our job but it [retaliation] doesn’t do justice for anybody – it just brings more pain,” Orlando said.

But Orlando said the group’s plot also went viral, and spread through social networking sites and straight to investigators.

“Responsible adults were logging onto their children’s or family members Myspace or Facebook and checking those messages and then calling the police or helping them find those messages, which led us to more witnesses and led us to confirm information,” Orlando said.

Investigators said they believe they have all subjects involved in this homicide.

The four suspects are also members of a tagging crew – a group of graffiti vandals typically without the violence of a gang, investigators said. There is no indication Zamarripa was in fact part of this crew, investigators said.

Orlando has not said if the juveniles in this case will be charged as adults.

Zamarripa was last reported as brain-dead, hanging on by life support. Investigators have not revealed any further updates on Zamarripa’s condition, and no arrests have been made.