Sandoval County charges teens in Adrian Maestas shooting death case

Sandoval County courts put public charges on the record in the Adrian Maestas shooting death case, charging Dominic Rosal with voluntary manslaughter and three other offenses. The indictment came nearly two years after the 15-year-old Rio Rancho boy was shot and killed.

Rosal was charged as a youthful offender with voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful carry of a weapon by a person younger than 19 and dueling. Ayden Reyes, Ashton Seefeldt and Ean Spencer were charged with dueling and unlawful carry of a deadly weapon by a person younger than 19, and Seefeldt also faces aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence. The case began as a first-degree murder investigation, but the new filing shifts the focus to voluntary manslaughter, a lesser homicide charge that does not carry the same allegation of premeditation.

Rio Rancho police dispatched officers at about 4:18 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2024, to the area of Inca Road and 2nd Street SE, where Maestas was shot in the head after people who knew one another gathered to resolve an ongoing dispute. He was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital and died on Nov. 1, 2024. Maestas had been a student at Rio Rancho High School and played football there. His sister, Tristyn Garcia, later asked for justice and remembered him as kind, and the family held a candlelight vigil after his death.

Judge George Eichwald granted prosecutors’ request to keep some defendants on house arrest with ankle monitors while the state prepares for trial. Rosal and Reyes were allowed to work while on ankle monitors. Spencer remains jailed because he is also facing separate murder-related charges in Albuquerque.

Prosecutors told the court that some of the defendants have multiple gun-related cases and a pattern of violent conduct. Rosal was recently implicated in a chop shop incident near Rainbow Boulevard.