Greensboro man convicted in Burlington teen's 2023 killing

A jury in Alamance County Superior Court convicted Greensboro resident Ruben Torralba-Barajas, 19, in the killing of Burlington teenager Adan Bautista, ending a case that had drawn close attention in Alamance County since the summer of 2023. Torralba-Barajas was found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and larceny, and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years, followed by 60 months on the remaining charges.

The case began at 10:31 p.m. on May 28, 2023, when Burlington police were called to the 200 block of Hatch Street near North Logan Street after a shooting. Officers found Bautista, who was 16, with a gunshot wound, and Burlington Fire Department crews, Alamance County EMS and police personnel worked at the scene before he was pronounced dead there. Bautista was a student at Southern Alamance High School.

Prosecutors with the Alamance County District Attorney’s Office said the investigation showed Torralba-Barajas and two others had planned to meet with Bautista and two of his friends to rob them. During that robbery attempt, prosecutors said, Torralba-Barajas shot Bautista in the chest. The state’s case tied the shooting to a planned street robbery that turned fatal in a Burlington neighborhood that sits close to homes, schools and daily traffic along Hatch Street.

Bautista’s family sat through the trial, watching the evidence that jurors said led them to the verdict. His sister, Norma Bautista, described the family’s grief and the way the loss still reaches into ordinary moments. “We always remember our brother Adan,” she said. For the Bautista family, the conviction closes one part of the case but not the absence left by a son and brother who never came home from the street where the shooting happened.

Court coverage also noted that Torralba-Barajas, Bautista and two other suspects were juveniles at the time of the crime, a detail that underscored how young everyone involved was when the violence unfolded. Burlington police had initially said the investigation was ongoing and that suspects were being identified, and the verdict in July 2026 brought the case from an active investigation to a final judgment more than three years later. Any further challenge would now move into the appeals process, but the jury’s decision has already given the Burlington community and Bautista’s family a legal ending to a case that began on Hatch Street and ended in life prison terms.