Kevin Geier sentenced to 35 years in 2018 Albuquerque drug murders

A judge sentenced Kevin Geier to 35 years in prison after he admitted in April 2026 that he killed Adrian Johnson and Samuel Almanza in Albuquerque five days apart in March 2018. The sentence brings a long-running case to a close after two drug-related homicides that shook neighborhoods on opposite sides of the city.

Johnson was found dead in a parking lot at an apartment complex in northeast Albuquerque, and Almanza was found in a motel room on the west side. Both men had been shot in the back of the head. Investigators have said the killings were drug-related, and Albuquerque police records tied Johnson’s death to a March 16, 2018 homicide call after witnesses reported hearing two gunshots and seeing a Ford Excursion with Chihuahua license plates flee the area.

After Almanza’s murder, authorities said Geier fled New Mexico for Arizona, where he was later arrested. Officials said he was found with multiple firearms, including weapons stolen from Almanza. By the time of his April confession to the two killings, Geier was already serving time for the March 2018 murder of Larry Phillips, making the month one of the deadliest and most tightly linked stretches in the case.

Families and friends of Johnson and Almanza spoke at the sentencing hearing. The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office said the sentence was imposed by a New Mexico judge, and the punishment will be served through the New Mexico Corrections Department.

For families following violent-crime prosecutions across central New Mexico, the case is a sharp reminder of how slowly homicide cases can move from the scene to final sentencing. It also shows the other side of that delay: prosecutors and investigators were eventually able to connect three March 2018 killings to the same defendant, turning a scattered string of deaths in Albuquerque and Arizona into a single case with a final prison term.