‘She’s the worst of the worst’: Mom who let teenage son take fall for murder she committed pleads guilty

A New Mexico mother who initially let her 16-year-old son languish in jail for a murder she committed only for her to be unmasked by her other son is headed to prison.

Elizabeth Ortiz-Chavez, 49, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the March 2022 shooting death of 16-year-old Josue Ruiz behind Lindy’s Diner in downtown Albuquerque. Initially, Ortiz-Chavez’s son Angelo Baldonado, then 16, was charged as an adult with murder.

Ortiz-Chavez allegedly shot the victim after setting up a fight between Ruiz and her son and driving to the alleyway near Fifth Street and Central Avenue. Prior to the shooting, Angelo Baldonado’s pregnant sister, whom Ruiz was dating allegedly told family that Ruiz had hit her.

Jail calls between Baldonado and his mother — included in a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime — show she was on the verge of coming forward with the truth, but Baldonado insisted that she not for the sake of the family. Prosecutors say she wanted to blame her son because he was a minor and would receive a lesser sentence.

But then her other son, Baldonado’s brother, blew the case open in March 2023. In a conversation on Facebook with a woman, he said what really happened.

“She advised me that during their conversations (Baldonado’s brother) did advise her that Angelo and his mother, Elizabeth Ortiz-Chavez, had gone to fight Josue and that Josue tried to pull a gun on them and that he got shot before he could take out his gun, but that detectives had charged his brother with the murder,” said the investigating detective’s complaint. “Gilbert also disclosed that the ‘crazy part about it’ was that his brother is not ‘telling’ on his mom.”

The brother expressed frustration that their mother would allow him to take the fall.