Dec. 23—Moments before he was fatally shot, 17-year-old Gabriel Gurule told a teenage gunman, “you are going to have to take my life.”
A witness told Albuquerque police that Jacob David Lovato, then 16, did just that, firing a spray of automatic gunfire from a modified 9mm handgun that killed Gurule.
Lovato, now 18, faces up to 25 years in prison for Gurule’s 2023 shooting death during what police described as a gun purchase turned robbery.
Lovato pleaded guilty last week to first-degree murder in Gurule’s killing and faces a Feb. 27 sentencing hearing before 2nd Judicial District Judge Bruce Fox.
Lovato also pleaded guilty last week to two counts of battery on a peace officer for assaulting corrections officers Dec. 3 at the Bernalillo County juvenile detention center. He has remained at the Metropolitan Detention Center since that date.
Lovato’s attorney, Stefanie Gulley, declined to comment when contacted by phone on Monday.
Albuquerque police found Gurule shot to death on April 21, 2023, in an apartment at Luxury Apartments in the 2500 block of Carlisle NE, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court.
A witness told police that Gurule and several friends had gone to the apartment to buy a firearm from a man police identified as Lovato.
Gurule and Lovato were comparing 9mm handguns, one of which was modified with an “auto-sear,” making it a fully automatic handgun, police said.
Lovato, who was holding both firearms, asked Gurule how much he was asking for his handgun, the affidavit said. Gurule responded that he would sell the gun for $950 but did not want to sell it.
Lovato said, “What if I kept it?” to which Gurule replied, “If you’re going to keep it, you are going to have to take my life,” the witness told police.
Lovato then “sprayed” the room with gunfire, fatally shooting Gurule, the affidavit said.
Video obtained from the apartment complex showed Lovato exiting the apartment shortly before midnight with a gun in his left front pocket and a handgun with an extended magazine in his right hand, the affidavit said.