Dec. 10—Recently filed court records allege that an FBI agent’s son, having shot up a car and killed a 13-year-old, then advised his accomplice “how they were going to get away with this.”
The pair trashed their clothes and repaired an errant bullet hole in the accomplice’s Lexus, then drove to Colorado to sell the car that day, using cash along the way and leaving their phones in Albuquerque so as not to be traced.
On the drive back, having failed to sell the Lexus, Thomas Acee prepared Michael Flores for the possibility of being caught, telling him “they would be spending the rest of their lives in prison.”
Last week Acee, 21, was charged with an open count of murder shooting from a motor vehicle and faces other charges, in the Aug. 18 death of Michael Tubb. Flores, also 21, was arrested in October and indicted by a grand jury on an open count of murder in Tubb’s death.
Flores has been released on an ankle monitor after a judge denied a prosecutor’s motion to hold him until trial. Meanwhile, prosecutors filed a motion to keep Acee behind bars until trial.
Acee’s attorney could not be reached Tuesday.
Flores’ account to Albuquerque police of how the shooting unfolded and its aftermath was revealed in court records filed Saturday. The motive, Flores said, was Acee spotted a someone who wronged him Downtown and believed the car he shot up had that person inside.
Thomas Acee is the son of FBI agent Bryan Acee, a well-respected law enforcement officer who has built cases against the Aryan Brotherhood and Juarez Cartel, among others. Bryan Acee is credited for largely dismantling Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico, one of the state’s largest and most violent gangs.
The unsealed documents include a photo of Thomas Acee holding an AK-style pistol, the alleged murder weapon. After Flores was arrested in October, he told police — among the other revelations — that Acee said “police were never going to find the gun.”
It was around 3:30 a.m. when officers responded to the shooting near Fourth and Atlantic SW, finding Tubb fatally shot and a teenage girl injured inside a car. Detectives identified the suspect’s car as a specific Lexus model and, in September, found one for sale on Facebook by Flores.
Police say they searched Flores’ cellphone records and found his phone was in the area where Tubb was shot at the time of the homicide and then followed the same route as the one seen taken by the Lexus on various cameras.
Police also found messages from “Tommy” encouraging Flores to trade the Lexus, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Detectives learned a Thomas Acee was contacting Flores while he was in jail.
Months after his arrest, Flores told police on Dec. 4 that the pair were Downtown when Acee spotted someone he said had shot up his car and robbed him in the past, the complaint states. Flores said Acee had him follow the person, and then the vehicle they thought he got into.
Flores told police that Acee then said they were following the wrong car and the two went back Downtown, where Acee had him follow a similar car, the one Tubb and other teens were inside, according to the complaint. Flores told police Acee had a AK-style pistol and a handgun on him.
Flores told police he didn’t want to follow the vehicle anymore and was about to turn around when Acee got out of the car and fired at least 12 times, the complaint states. He said Acee helped repair a bullet hole in the roof of the Lexus, using Bondo and spray paint, and they drove to Colorado to try and sell it.
Flores told police no dealership wanted the vehicle because it was rear-wheel drive and they returned to Albuquerque, according to the complaint. He said Acee told him to never talk about the crime on social media and, if he was arrested, to destroy his cellphone.
“Michael and Thomas discussed listing the Lexus for sale on Facebook Marketplace after several other failed attempts to sell the vehicle in both Arizona and New Mexico,” the complaint states.