Nov. 10 – A man awaiting trial in the 2022 murder of an Albuquerque Academy student is accused of several other drive-by shootings in the months that followed.
Julian Prieb, 20, is charged with seven counts each of shooting from a motor vehicle and unlawful carrying of a handgun by a person under 19 years of age, and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Prieb, who was 18 at the time of the alleged shootings, is currently awaiting trial for the December 2022 death of 18-year-old Jada Gonzales. In that case, he had been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center since November 2023.
Prieb was one of four teenagers charged in connection with Gonzales’ death.
Isaiah Espinosa was sentenced to 29 years in prison after Gonzales’ death, and Cruz Medina pleaded guilty in a deal offered by prosecutors. Jesse Parra, like Prieb, is awaiting trial.
Police say the group was kicked out of a party and then shot up the house, hitting Gonzales.
Unlike Medina and Espinosa, Prieb was not charged and arrested for Gonzales’ death until almost a year later. Prieb committed seven other drive-by shootings in the months between May and June 2023, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. No one was injured in the shootings. Prieb’s family declined to comment.
In a motion for pretrial detention, prosecutors said Prieb “was associated with other actors in their gunfights… routine shooting from a motor vehicle – extremely dangerous conduct.”
“If the timeline is stretched out long enough, someone will be hurt or killed,” the motion said. “The conclusion from his situation was that (Prieb) was looking for the thrill of it.”
During the investigation into the June 2023 death of 18-year-old Adrian Porras, police identified Prieb as involved in several drive-by shootings, the complaint said. Police said Prieb was “eliminated as a suspect” in Porras’ death, but was found to be involved in other shootings involving Jorge Luevano and Carlos Portillo, the suspects in Porras’ murder.
On May 31, 2023, a man reported his car had been shot and Prieb “claimed responsibility” for the incident on social media, the complaint said. Six other shootings occurred in the following weeks, one at a house party and others in other areas around Albuquerque.
Police said a search of cellphone records showed Prieb at every shooting in the area, and there were reports indicating he was involved in some way. The shell casings found at the scene of each shooting matched the casings found at the scene of Porras’ death.
