- Suspect: Daryl Albert
- Victim: Christopher Martinez
- Charges: Open count of murder; tampering with evidence
- Status: No contest plea to voluntary manslaughter (lesser-included offense)
- Sentence: 5 years followed by 2 years supervised probation
- Date of incident: Jan. 17, 2017
- Agency: Albuquerque Police Department
- Location: Wyoming and Central, Albuquerque
- Magistrate case number: T-4-FR-2017-327
- District case number: D-202-CR-2017-398
- Plea/sentencing judge: District Judge Jacqueline Flores
Summary
Albuquerque Police officers broke up a fight between Daryl Albert and Christopher Martinez on Jan. 17, 2017. While talking to Martinez, he clutched his side and told them Albert stabbed him. Although Martinez was transported to the hospital, he was dead on arrival.
On March 27, 2018, Albert pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and on May 8, 2018, District Court Judge Jacqueline Flores sentenced him to five years in prison.
On Aug. 31, 2018, his attorney filed a motion for a reconsideration of his sentence in light of “new information,” although no hearings have been set.
The incident
On Jan. 17, 2017, Officers R. Vanderlip and J. Bludworth were dispatched out to the Circle K at the intersection of Central and Wyoming in Albuquerque.
While not able to find the driver, they did see two men, later identified at Daryl Albert and Christopher Martinez, fighting, Det. J. Brown wrote in a statement of probable cause for Albert’s arrest.
Albert was allegedly highly intoxicated. After a breath test, his blood-alcohol level would test at twice the legal limit for driving.
The officers separated the two men and began talking to them separately.
Two more officers, on bicycles, C. Keeling and E. Huggs, saw the two officers and came by to help.
After a few minutes, Martinez came at the officers, his left hand clutching his side, his right hand clutching a box cuter. He told them Albert had stabbed him.
Officers then went to re-apprehend Albert, who had been allowed to leave the scene.
While walking him back toward Circle K, a man who refused to be identified yelled the officers and Albert.
“You had to be a bitch and stab him,” the man yelled.
Martinez was transported to the hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.
One witness, only identified as OH, told the officers that he saw Albert run to the bus stop where Martinez was standing and stab him with a knife.
“OH stated after Christopher was stabbed, he observed Christopher pull out a knife from his pocket and then walk east toward the front of the Circle K where officers were,” Brown wrote.
Another witness, a juvenile only identified as DL, told detectives that Albert, whom he knew as “Puppet,” ran toward Martinez and stabbed him with a knife.
Detectives were able to find the folding knife allegedly used in the attack in a bush at the corner of Wisconsin and Central. It had blood on it.
PC - Daryl Albert - 1-17-2017Police arrest suspect in last nights fatal stabbing. Daryl Albert was booked into MDC on related charges. pic.twitter.com/FmSg13nOPB
— Albuquerque Police Department (@ABQPOLICE) January 18, 2017
Indictment, plea, sentence
A grand jury indicted Daryl Albert, Feb. 2, 2017, on charges of:
- Open count of murder (including first-degree murder)
- Tampering with evidence
On March 27, 2018, Albert pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, a lesser-included offense of the open count of murder he was indicted on. District Court Judge Jacqueline Flores accepted his no contest plea. Under the plea, Albert admitted to being a habitual offender, which increased whatever sentence he received by one year. Voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of six years.
On May 8, 2018, Flores sentenced Albert to seven years and suspended two years for a total sentence of five years in prison followed by two years of supervised probation.
According to the judgement and sentence, Albert received credit for 504 days of time served.
On Aug. 31, 2018, Albert’s attorney, Christopher Knight, filed a motion for a reconsideration of Albert’s sentence.
“Defendant would like the opportunity to inform the court of new information concerning his sentence,” Knight wrote.
He did not write what new information he wants to present.
According to the docket, no hearing has been scheduled and prosecutors have not replied to the motion for a reconsideration of his sentence.
See the case documents on Google Drive or Document Cloud.
