Erica Valdez was sentenced after admitting guilt in the Fourth of July shooting death of Joel Valdez.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 16-year-old girl found her father dead in a street after her mother drove away from the area, a discovery that became central to the murder case against Erica Valdez.
The death of Joel Valdez, 39, ended in court with a 15-year prison sentence for Erica Valdez, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a firearm enhancement and shooting at a dwelling with a firearm enhancement. The sentence was less than the 25 years prosecutors requested. Officials said the killing followed a long breakdown in the marriage and several armed confrontations on July 4, 2023, including one at a motel and another near the couple’s Albuquerque home.
Family members arrived near 98th Street after learning that shots had been fired toward the home on Andrews Avenue, according to police accounts. They saw Joel Valdez’s car with a door open and noticed a dark sedan, believed to be Erica Valdez’s vehicle, make a U-turn and leave the area. The couple’s daughter saw her mother driving off and then found her father’s body on the road. Police said that scene came after a second burst of gunfire recorded by surveillance video. The girl’s role in the case was not limited to the discovery. Court documents said she had told Joel Valdez days earlier about her mother’s relationships outside the marriage, a disclosure prosecutors said helped trigger a sharp new round of conflict inside the family.
The first major confrontation that day happened away from the home, at a Motel 6 where James Sena worked as a security guard. Police said Erica Valdez and Sena had been dating. Joel Valdez went to the motel with a woman he was seeing and confronted them. Authorities said Sena pointed a handgun at Joel Valdez, and Erica Valdez appeared at the door with a gun while yelling for Joel Valdez and the woman to leave. The woman later told police she believed the weapon had an extended clip. Investigators said Joel Valdez and the woman left, but the dispute moved back toward the family home later that night. At 9:41 p.m., police received a 911 call from the Andrews Avenue address. On the call, authorities said, a woman could be heard threatening to shoot.
The home itself became another scene in the case. Police said Erica Valdez showed up there at about 9:40 p.m. and pointed a gun at Joel Valdez’s chest. As she left, surveillance video captured automatic gunfire in the area, and police later found damage from bullets at the house. A relative told investigators Erica Valdez called afterward and said, “I just sprayed the house.” Police later recovered casings near the home and in the road near where Joel Valdez was found. Investigators said the casings supported their view that the house shooting and the fatal street shooting were connected. They also said two firearms appeared to have been used in the attacks that targeted Joel Valdez within minutes of each other.
Prosecutors described the case as the violent endpoint of months of fighting. Relatives told police the couple had been arguing for months. Officials said the disputes grew worse during the week before the killing as Erica and Joel Valdez accused each other of relationships outside their marriage. Prosecutors said Erica Valdez had belittled her husband and called him a slur in the months before the shooting. After their daughter told Joel Valdez about Erica Valdez’s relationships, court documents said he became verbally angry and began seeing other people. The record also included an earlier April 2023 charge against Erica Valdez for 911 abuse after she allegedly called police 27 times to report domestic violence. That history added context for investigators but did not change the charge that sent the case to sentencing.
The prosecution’s sentencing position focused on repeated armed conduct, not a single isolated shot. Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said Valdez made multiple attempts to shoot Joel Valdez before the fatal gunfire. He said she fired an automatic pistol while Joel Valdez was outside the home, left the area and then returned about two hours later. “She shot and killed him a few streets away,” Bregman said. Erica Valdez’s plea avoided a trial, but it did not erase the firearm enhancements attached to the murder and dwelling charges. Those enhancements raised the punishment tied to the admitted crimes. The judge rejected the state’s request for 25 years and imposed 15 years instead.
Sena was arrested after Erica Valdez and charged with conspiracy to commit a first-degree felony. Albuquerque police said detectives believed he was present during events around the final confrontation and had been armed earlier at the motel. Police also said Erica Valdez and Sena were suspects in a separate July 3 shooting at a house, though the public record described only limited details about that incident. Sena’s conspiracy charge in the Valdez killing was later dismissed after he accepted a 2024 plea deal for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The murder case, by contrast, ended with Erica Valdez’s guilty plea and prison sentence.
For the family, the official record now stands on the road where Joel Valdez was found and the home that was struck by gunfire minutes earlier. Erica Valdez is set to serve 15 years, and no murder conspiracy charge remains against Sena.
Author note: Last updated June 15, 2026.