Man pleads guilty in fatal crash of ABQ mother and daughter
Jul. 24—A man pleaded guilty this week to four felony charges for his part in a 2017 crash that killed an Albuquerque woman and her 14-year-old daughter in a foothills neighborhood.
Paul Anthony Garcia, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of motor vehicle theft and two counts of conspiracy on condition that he testify next month at the first-degree murder trial of a woman who allegedly drove a stolen van involved in the crash.
Garcia was a passenger in the van when it plowed into a car, fatally injuring Shaunna Arredondo-Boling, 39, her daughter, Shaylee Boling, 14, and injuring her 3-year-old son.
Arredondo-Boling was driving her daughter to school on Jan. 18, 2017, when police say two thieves traveling nearly 80 mph slammed into their car near Chelwood Park and Copper NE.
Shaylee Boling, a Sandia High School freshman, died at the scene. Arredondo-Boling died 13 days later having never regained consciousness. Her son was hospitalized with a broken leg.
The alleged driver of the van, Elexus Groves, is scheduled for trial Aug. 10 on two counts of first-degree murder during the commission of a felony in the deaths of the mother and daughter.
Groves, 26, is charged with 10 felony counts in all, including aggravated fleeing a law officer, knowingly leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, and great bodily injury by vehicle in connection with the boy's injuries.
Garcia's plea agreement requires him to "cooperate fully and give truthful statements" in Groves' trial. Garcia will be sentenced after the trial, it said.
The plea agreement also recommends Garcia receive a sentence of 10 years and six months, with six years to be served in prison and the remainder suspended.
