ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Five years after the bodies of two teenage boys were found on the West Mesa of Albuquerque, the trial has begun for the three men suspected of the crimes. The suspects that are on trial are Stephen Goldman Jr., Julio Almentero, and Jimmie Atkins. All three men are all accused of murder, kidnapping, and tampering with evidence.
On the night of the incident, 15-year-old Colin Romero and 14-year-old Ahmen Lateef told friends they were going to buy marijuana and a gun. However, the boys ended up being abducted, tortured, and murdered. The 2019 autopsy report from the Office of the Medical Investigator stated that Romero was shot nine times, beaten, and stabbed in his joints. The report also said that Lateef was shot 19 times.
Wednesday the prosecution highlighted call logs and video footage as evidence during the trial. Footage from Snapchat taken on Goldman Jr.’s phone shows the men driving across Albuquerque and torturing the teens in their car. The prosecution also went into great detail about how the defendants attempted to get rid of the evidence – burning their car and returning to rebury the bodies days after the boys were killed.
The defense responded by casting doubt on the reliability of cell phone data and the role that Goldman Jr.’s father happened that night. Stephen Goldman Sr. plead guilty to tampering with evidence and is serving a four-year prison term.
