Suspects in high-profile cases appear in court

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Three of the most high-profile suspects KOB 4 has told you about in recent years were set to face judges Wednesday.

RUDY’S SHOOTING

Emilio Mirabal is accused of opening fire outside the Rudy’s Bar-B-Q off Carlisle and I-40 this past Friday.

A state police and Albuquerque police officer reportedly both shot at Mirabal but didn’t hit him. That’s after he allegedly shot two people, at random, in a car in the Rudy’s parking lot. We still haven’t heard anything about the victims’ conditions. 

Prosecutors want Mirabal locked up until trial, and a judge agreed Wednesday. 

At the end of his hearing this afternoon – once the audio cut out – Mirabal appeared to stop cooperating with officers.  It took four of them to get him out of the courtroom. 

Right after Mirabal was arrested, police claim he said the charges against him “weren’t that bad.”

He was connected to an Albuquerque murder years ago, and took a plea deal that put him in prison for four years. 

However, we’re still trying to figure out why the documents in this Rudy’s case are sealed – that’s rare. 

POKÉMON GO SHOOTING, INMATE STABBING

Izaiah Garcia has already been sentenced for killing a local high school student.

Now, he’s charged with attempted second-degree murder, and on Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to a stabbing in jail. 

Garcia appeared to stab a fellow inmate who he believed killed his half brother. That inmate survived. 

A judge tacked more time on top of the life sentence Garcia is already serving. 

“I will impose the three years of incarceration to run concurrent to the life sentence already imposed,” said Second Judicial District Court Judge Jennifer Wernersbach. “To be followed by two years of parole when you’re released from that term. It sounds like that two years of parole will be served in house, but it is still part of the sentence.”

That life sentence is because Garcia killed high school senior Sean Markey at a party in 2019. 

Garcia is still awaiting trial for the killing of another teen — Cayla Campos — while she was playing Pokémon Go with her boyfriend just weeks after killing Markey. 

BODIES FOUND AT SUNPORT

Finally, the suspect in one of the most gruesome cases in the metro – involving an awful discovery at the Albuquerque International Sunport.

Sean Lannon reportedly killed and then dismembered three people before leaving their bodies in a truck at the Sunport in 2021.  

Police say he also killed a man who unknowingly helped Lannon move those bodies. Lannon was supposed to face a judge Wednesday for that alleged murder.

The other victims found at the Sunport were Lannon’s ex-wife and two of her friends.  

After those killings, police say he went to New Jersey and killed his mentor and then allegedly confessed to killing nearly a dozen other people in New Mexico.  

Lannon is already serving a life sentence for the New Jersey murder. His hearing Wednesday was to see if a New Mexico judge would keep him in jail until going on trial for the cases here, but that hearing was basically canceled. 

Since he’s serving a life sentence there’s no chance he’s getting out anytime soon.