John Jefferson
Inset: Josef Toney (Bernalillo County District Attorney). Background: Toney appears in court (KOB).
A 19-year-old New Mexico man who was 15 when he murdered a mother in front of her 2-year-old daughter, killed a second woman and wounded a man in a robbery has learned his fate.
Josef Toney was sentenced to 45 years in prison with probation possible after 38 years in the deaths of Aerial Mallam, 21, and Jessica Casaus Lucero, 31, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced in a press release.
The bloodshed happened the night of Jan. 27, 2021, when Toney showed up at the Aztec Village apartments in Albuquerque. He shot Mallam as her 2-year-old daughter looked on and then killed Lucero.
As Toney was fleeing, he shot and wounded Mallam’s uncle before the assailant got into a gunfight with a fourth individual as he tried to take a vehicle, authorities said. Toney was shot in that exchange of gunfire but managed to get away. Police arrested Toney more than nine months later in Denver.
Mallam’s uncle appeared in court to urge the judge to give the defendant the maximum punishment.
“The guy that’s sitting in the defendant’s chair, that wasn’t a kid that was shooting at me,” he said, local CBS and Fox affiliate KRQE reported. “That guy knew exactly what the hell he was doing. There is no doubt in my mind he knew what he was doing.”
Margaret Lucero, Jessica Lucero’s mother, was incredulous.
“How on earth do we explain this to our grandchildren? That’s not possible,” she said, local NBC affiliate KOB reported.
Added Shantelle Rojo, Jessica Lucero’s sister: “We had to cremate my sister because she was shot in the head, and I never got to see her face because they said it would be too hard for me to see. The best that I got was to say goodbye to a corpse-filled body bag.”
Toney apologized, KOB reported.
“At first, you guys hit it right on. When you said I was sorry because I got caught because that was the case. It was,” Toney said, the outlet reported. “It took a lot of time and a lot of me learning about real-life situations. Like reading the news and reading books about real life and truly understanding that life is a precious thing.”
Toney pleaded guilty in the case in April.
The case took a twist when a month later, he escaped from an Albuquerque juvenile facility. He was caught on surveillance video opening a gate but turned himself in the following day, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said.
Lucero’s obituary said she was a mother of three children. The lifelong New Mexico resident moved to Albuquerque to pursue higher education and to reach her ultimate goal of becoming a nurse anesthetist, the obituary said.
“Jessica had a colorful life,” the obituary said. “She was genuine, loving, kind, and loyal. Her personality was contagious and her smile infectious.”
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