Shooting Victim Testifies, Jury Views Video in Las Cruces Trial

Ruben Morales, a survivor of the Young Park mass shooting who was struck by bullets more than a dozen times, took the stand in a Las Cruces courtroom this week to describe the moment he says 16-year-old Josiah Ontiveros pulled the trigger on him at point-blank range. Ontiveros, who was 15 at the time of the March 21, 2025 attack, is the third of four defendants to face a jury in one of New Mexico's most closely watched gun-violence prosecutions in recent memory.

Morales, the uncle of slain victim Dominick Estrada, told jurors he tried to physically restrain one of the gunmen as the chaos unfolded during an unauthorized car show at the park. He described grabbing the suspect in what he called a "bear hug" before Ontiveros pointed a weapon at his head and ordered him to let go. Morales said he held on for a few seconds before being shot in the buttock. He identified in court the person who shot him as wearing "a blue button-up shirt."

The emotional testimony was paired with video that prosecutors argued puts Ontiveros at the center of the violence, not its edge. Las Cruces Police Lt. Peter Bradley spent nearly three hours walking jurors through three cell phone videos of the shooting frame by frame, pointing out Ontiveros in a "grey and black Nike tech fleece" and a neck gaiter. Based on the defendant's movements across the park and the shell casing pattern recovered from the scene, Bradley told the court that investigators believe Ontiveros fired at least three rounds. The shell casings, prosecutors say, are attributable to a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun that was never recovered.

Las Cruces resident Craig Theriault also testified about his cell phone footage of the incident, which circulated widely after the shooting and has been used in all three of the Young Park trials. It was the first time Theriault appeared before a jury in the case.

The Young Park shooting left three people dead, including Dominick Estrada, and injured 15 others. Brothers Tomas Rivas, 21, and Nathan Rivas, 18, have each been convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for their roles. Ontiveros and a fourth defendant, Gustavo Dominguez, still await resolution of their cases.

Defense attorney Legrand Miller argued that Ontiveros acted in response to a legitimate threat rather than as an aggressor. "Josiah was not waving his gun around," Miller told the jury. "He was aiming at a deadly threat. He hit the deadly threat. My client shouldn't be held accountable for the actions of others in the group." The defense also disclosed that it had previously proposed a 23-year plea agreement, which the state declined without a counteroffer.

Ontiveros faces three counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, all tried as adult charges. As the youngest defendant in the case, his trial has drawn particular attention to how New Mexico courts handle juvenile offenders in mass-casualty cases and the weight video evidence carries in persuading jurors when accounts of chaotic, multi-shooter incidents conflict on crucial details. With the prosecution having already secured two convictions against the Rivas brothers, the Ontiveros jury faces a similar evidentiary record but a markedly different legal argument: whether age and claimed coercion distinguish a participant from an equal co-conspirator.