2 Gang Members Will Spend Life in Prison for Killing 11-Year-Old in Tragic Case of Mistaken Identity

Froylan Villegas, 11, was killed and his cousin Tatiana Villegas paralyzed when two gang members opened fire on their family’s truck outside a baseball game

NEED TO KNOW

• Froylan Villegas, 11, was killed in a 2023 drive-by shooting as his family left an Albuquerque baseball game
• Two gang members, Jose Romero and Nathan Garley, mistook the family’s truck for a rival’s and fired more than a dozen rounds
• Froylan’s cousin, Tatiana, was paralyzed; his mother and infant brother were also in the truck but were uninjured

Two gang members have been sentenced to life in prison after opening fire on a truck carrying a New Mexico family — killing an 11-year-old boy and paralyzing his cousin in a tragic case of mistaken identity. 

Jose Romero, 23, and Nathen Garley, 22, were sentenced Monday to life in prison plus 46 years for the September 2023 shooting that killed Froylan Villegas outside an Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game, according to NBC News.

The pair were convicted in February of first-degree murder, attempted murder, shooting at a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence, per the outlet. 

PEOPLE previously reported that Froylan had been riding in the backseat of his family’s white Dodge pickup when suspects in another vehicle opened fire through the sunroof of their Dodge Durango, mistakenly believing they were shooting at a rival gang member they had argued with that night. 

More than a dozen rounds were fired — Froylan was shot in the head and died at the scene. His cousin, 23-year-old Tatiana Villegas, was hit multiple times and is now paralyzed from the chest down. 

Froylan’s mother and his infant brother were also in the car, but were not physically harmed. 

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said in a statement that he hopes the verdict brings “come sort of peace and justice to Froylan’s family.” 

“We’re very happy as a family that we got justice for Froylan and me,” Tatiana Villegas told ABC affiliate KOAT. “And that’s what matters. The rest we leave in God’s hands. We’re glad to close this chapter and move on.”

The shooting sparked statewide concern over youth gun violence, prompting Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to declare a temporary public health emergency with a ban on firearms in parks and playgrounds across Albuquerque. 

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Prosecutors said surveillance video, ballistic analysis and eyewitness testimony were crucial in securing the two mens’ convictions.

Under New Mexico law, their verdict automatically triggers an appeal. 

The suspect in the fatal ‘ding dong ditch’ shooting of an 11-year-old boy is a US Army vet. Here’s what we know

By

Danya Gainor

,

Holly Yan

Updated Sep 4, 2025

11-year-old Julián Guzman was fatally shot after knocking on a Houston man’s door and running away, police said. Daniel Guzman

Eleven-year-old Julián Guzman and his cousin had been hanging out at a family party late Saturday when they decided to branch out on their own.

But what started as innocent fun would soon take a devastating turn.

They took to the streets of their east Houston neighborhood to play an age-old prank: ring a neighbor’s doorbell, and flee before they have time to answer.

The pair had successfully tricked other neighborhood residents when they came upon a house on Mimbrough Street just before 11 p.m. The two-story home towered over the cousins, but its spacious porch and windows far from the front door made it ideal for ding-dong-ditching.

Julián reached for the doorbell, ready to run.

After ringing the bell, the young boys took off, making it at least 20 feet away before the suspect walked to the edge of his property and two shots rang out — one finding its mark in Julián’s back, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told CNN.

© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap Improve this map

Approximate site where boy was fatally shot

Shooting suspect’s house

The preteen’s death from his injuries at the hospital the next day made him the latest, and one of the youngest, victims of deadly violence incited by the doorbell prank that’s been repopularized for a new generation by social media.

“They were doing what 11-year-old boys do, just playing pranks on neighbors,” Teare said. “Tragically, it cost him his life.”

Child shot and killed while playing ‘ding dong ditch’

0:52

Here’s what we know.

A cousin dragged the boy’s mortally wounded body after he was shot

Julián’s cousin told police that he and Julián got bored at a family birthday party and decided to play “ding dong ditch” at some neighborhood homes, a criminal complaint says.

The two boys knocked on the doors of multiple homes before arriving at the home of Gonzalo Leon Jr., the complaint says. At the time, Leon was at home with his wife and toddler daughter, the court document states.

The boys knocked on Leon’s door several times and ran away. The cousin then “saw a male dressed in black exit the wooden gate attached” to the house, court records say.

The man shot once “into the ground” and then “raised the pistol and shot once again in their direction,” the complaint says. Julián “collapsed to the ground, asking for help,” and cried out in pain that he had been shot.

The cousin told police that as he returned to help Julián, he had to “Army” drag the wounded boy “because he believed that his legs were paralyzed.”

The cousin also told police that the person who shot Julián “was standing next to the stop sign right in front of the house.” A detective confirmed, “there is a stop sign at the corner in front of the house.”

Julián died “while being treated for a gunshot wound to his back,” court documents state.

An Army veteran is charged with murder

The shooting suspect, 42-year-old Leon, is a military veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan, Army spokesperson Christopher Surridge told CNN.

Leon was an infantryman in the Army from August 2013 to December 2016 and served in the Texas National Guard from December 2016 to May 2021, according to Surridge.

Leon was deployed to Afghanistan from November 2014 to April 2015 and left the Army with the rank of specialist, Surridge said.

Gonzalo Leon Jr. Houston Police Department/AP

As Julián ran from Leon’s home, he had no weapons, and there wasn’t any indication that he stole anything, Teare said. Despite this, investigators believe the suspect fired his gun twice, once in an “intentional, measured way” that struck the boy.

The piercing pops from the firearm were replaced by a different kind of cacophony. Officers used a blaring vehicle PA system to demand the suspect come out of his home, according to court documents.

After about 20 minutes, Leon emerged and was detained by authorities, the criminal complaint states.

Early the next morning, officers brought him back to the home, handcuffed, CNN affiliate KTRK reported.

Leon was charged with Julián’s murder Monday, the city of Houston announced Tuesday.

Teare, the district attorney, told CNN charges were not filed until authorities had probable cause. “Once we got to a point, sometime on Sunday, that we believe that we had a good idea of what happened, that was when charges were filed.”

Prosecutors will pursue capital murder charges for Leon, Teare told CNN’s Laura Coates Wednesday night, raising the possibility of the death penalty.

“When we present this to a grand jury, we’re going to present it as a capital murder, which is what it turns out it is,” Teare said.

Bond set at $1 million

Leon made an initial court appearance Tuesday and agreed to have a court-appointed attorney.

On Wednesday, he appeared in an orange jail uniform before Judge Emily DeToto, who set his bond at $1 million. Leon’s bond conditions include home confinement and electronic monitoring.

Related article

Man charged with murder after a ‘ding dong ditch’ shooting leaves an 11-year-old boy dead

Prosecutor John Brewer told the judge that more charges could be filed.

During the investigation, Leon’s wife gave consent for officers to enter the home. There, they found about 20 weapons, including AR-style rifles and handguns, Brewer said.

But defense attorney Gianpaolo Macerola said Leon, a disabled Army veteran, “was merely exercising his constitutional (right) – one that he has fought for, for his country.”

Leon’s defense attorney said it was unclear whether his client was a US citizen. The judge said his birthplace was listed as “YY” – an indicator of a country not included in the National Crime Information Center’s list of countries.

‘We’re turning over every rock’

With a suspect in custody, Teare said investigators are “canvassing the entire neighborhood” for evidence to build a more comprehensive picture of the night that turned devastating for Julián’s family.

The boys left the family party a few streets over from the Mimbrough Street home because they “stopped wanting to hang out with the rest of the family and wanted to go be kids,” Teare said.

Investigators are working to nail down which houses the boys visited before Leon’s and how long Leon had been in the house before the boys got there, he said.

Police don’t have anything that shows the incident “surveillance footage wise,” Teare said, when asked by CNN if there was a doorbell camera at the suspect’s house or surrounding homes that captured the shooting.

But he said the investigation is ongoing.

“We are beating every bush, we’re turning over every rock,” Teare said. “We’re going to exhaust every investigative effort.”

Witness statements, physical evidence from the scene and the autopsy from the medical examiner all helped to inform Leon’s murder charge, he said, and may help to narrow the options for defense at trial.

How far do Texas self-defense laws go?

Many states have laws granting people the right to use force — even deadly force — in any place where they have a legal right to be, like a home, vehicle or workplace.

Often referred to as a “Castle Doctrine” or “Stand Your Ground” legislation, these laws in Texas determine a person is justified in defending themselves, family and property if someone unlawfully enters or tries to enter private premises.

In Texas, a state with “one of the strongest ‘stand your ground’ laws,” according to its governor, people can use deadly force if they believe it’s “immediately necessary” against another person’s use of deadly force, or to prevent assault, robbery and certain other crimes.

Prosecutors firmly deny that this type of legislation is relevant to Leon’s alleged actions Saturday night.

“The castle doctrine does not apply in any way, shape or form to an 11-year-old boy running down the street,” Teare told CNN. “There was no threat to the individual that shot him.”

While the law provides strong protections, cases depend on specific facts from each incident, and law enforcement or a jury can still scrutinize a suspect’s actions to determine if the use of force was justified.

Age-old prank repopularized by social media

Ding-dong-ditching has been around for generations, long held as a mischievous and childish prank. In the rise of short video-driven social media, users now often go viral on platforms like TikTok after filming themselves in the act, eliciting upset responses from homeowners.

But its recent resurgence in popularity has left children across the country dead after they ring doorbells or pound on and kick front doors.

In a Dallas suburb at the end of July, a man fired shots into a fleeing car after someone banged on his door, according to police. The man was arrested on charges of aggravated assault.

In 2020, three 16-year-olds were killed when a man rammed his car into their vehicle in retaliation for pulling a ding-dong-ditch prank on him. The man was convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2023.

Authorities around the US have warned of the physical dangers and legal consequences for children who engage in the prank.

“Think it’s funny to bang on doors and run? Think again,” the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana wrote in a Facebook post in August. “What might seem like a prank can lead to serious legal trouble, property damage, or worse – someone getting hurt.”

“That’s a good way to end up dead, especially in Florida,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office told CNN affiliate WESH in July after arresting a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy for kicking a resident’s door one night.

TikTok has not responded to CNN’s questions about when the company first learned “ding dong ditch” pranks were leading to physical harm or whether the platform has taken any action to restrict such posts.

CNN’s Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Amanda Jackson, Karina Tsui and Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this report.