Timothy Johnson

Timothy Johnson Jr., a 23-year-old man, was killed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the early morning of June 16, 2022. The shooting happened in the parking lot of a Circle K gas station located at Coors and Gun Club SW. Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies responded to the scene at approximately 12:15 a.m. and found Johnson fatally wounded.

According to a criminal complaint, surveillance video from the gas station captured the incident. The footage showed a person getting out of a car, shooting Timothy Johnson, and taking something from him before driving away. The investigation quickly focused on a suspect after Johnson’s sister began receiving Instagram messages from an individual who seemed to have intimate knowledge of her brother's death. Investigators traced those messages to Adrian Sanchez.

Detectives learned that the firearm used to kill Johnson was the same one that had been stolen a month earlier during another homicide. On May 5, 2022, a man named Jesus Lopez, 29, was shot and killed, and his gun was taken. Adrian Sanchez was also the primary suspect in that case. After his arrest, Sanchez reportedly admitted to police that he had shot Lopez and taken his gun.

Authorities charged Adrian Sanchez, then 18, with an open count of murder, armed robbery, and tampering with evidence in the death of Timothy Johnson. A second person, 19-year-old Gloria Sanchez, was also charged with conspiracy. Investigators alleged that she had set Johnson up to be robbed by Adrian Sanchez at the gas station.

In April 2024, a jury convicted Adrian Sanchez of voluntary manslaughter and armed robbery for the killing of Jesus Lopez, acquitting him of first- and second-degree murder charges in that case. He faces a lengthy prison sentence for those convictions. However, the charges against him for the death of Timothy Johnson, which include first-degree murder and armed robbery, remain pending. As of April 2024, no trial date had been scheduled in Johnson’s case.