APD arrests suspect in 2nd murder from 2021

Friday, March 10, 2023

ALBUQUERQUE – APD’s Homicide Unit charged Xavier Raphael Marquez with the June 2021 murder of Daniel Bustos at a Travel Lodge motel in Northwest Albuquerque.

Marquez, 22, is already in jail for the September 2021 murder of Shawn Lynch, 34, at 434 Kentucky St., N.E. He recently pleaded guilty to Second Degree Murder and another charge.

Officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation on June 17, 2021, at the Travel Lodge motel, located at 6012 Iliff Rd., N.W. They determined a confrontation occurred in the parking lot of the motel that escalated into gunfire. Officers later learned a woman drove the shooting victim, later identified as Bustos, 34, to a Downtown hospital to treat a gunshot wound to his leg. He was transported to UNMH, where he died as a result of his wound.

Through investigation, detectives determined Marquez fired 14 shots in the direction of Bustos, striking him once. During an interview with detectives, Marquez claimed Bustos fired a gun into the air. Marquez said he heard other gunshots and he got out of his vehicle and started firing his own gun.

Using APD’s ShotSpotter gun detection system and ballistics testing through the National Information and Ballistics Information Network, or NIBIN, detectives determined a total of 14 shots were fired, all from the same gun. The shots were fired from the area where Marquez said he was standing outside of his vehicle. There was no evidence of any other shots being fired by anyone else.

Marquez is charged with an open count of murder, tampering with evidence, and shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied building.

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