ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jese Escobedo Barrios was in court Thursday for his role in the 2022 death of Jada Gonzales. She died after getting shot in a drive-by at a house party in northwest Albuquerque.  

“Mr. Escobedo’s role in this is essentially the help, cause and encourage part. Also, judge, he filmed this incident so that’s what gives the state grave concern about Mr. Escobedo,” said the state prosecutor.

Escobedo Barrios is the fifth person to be arrested for the death of Gonzales.

Court documents said he recorded the shooting on his cell phone from the other suspect’s car – the state argued he was encouraging the shooters.

“Actively and verbally encouraging your associates to shoot a person shoot a home, shoot into a crowd of people while they’re leaving a party and filming it is effectively dangerous behavior,” the prosecutor said.

The state asked for Escobedo Barrios to stay in jail ahead of a possible trial, but his defense attorney argued Escobedo Barrios doesn’t have a record and recording video doesn’t make him guilty.

“Today’s video culture is pretty rampant both from the social media perspective and on anybody’s phone. People video cars, they video sporting events they video everything, everything. I don’t believe that is indicative of any sort of encouragement, assistance, any sort of help,” the defense attorney said.

Escobedo Barrios is facing an open count of murder, and several other charges.

Judge Jennifer Wernersbach ruled Escobedo Barrios would be let go with conditions of release, including GPS monitoring and a curfew.

“He himself has not gone into this realm of shooting firearms randomly, but he’s very close to it, he’s in very close proximity to it and I do want to intervene at this point so we can avoid him going this same route,” Wernersbach said.

The judge also said Escobedo Barrios’ parents must sign court documents saying he cannot get his hands on guns at home.

As for the three suspects who APD said shot at the house – Cruz Medina, Isaiah Espinosa and Jesse Parra – a trial date has been scheduled for later this year.

Julian Prieb, another suspect, is also facing a conspiracy to commit murder charge.