For Immediate Release

March 14, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

Albuquerque, NM

MURDER CASE INVOLVING OTERO COUNTY DEPUTY TO PROCEED -- 

District Court Judge Angie Schneider ruled there was probable cause (enough evidence) to proceed with First-Degree murder charges against Otero County Deputy Jacob Diaz-Austin.

Thursday, in Alamogordo, New Mexico,  Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Natalie Lyon presented evidence in court that included video, photos, and testimony.

June 25, 2024, Deputy Diaz-Austin was responding to a welfare check when he shot and killed 17-year-old Elijah Hadley in a highway median near Mescalero, New Mexico. Hadley was shot 15 times and suffered multiple abrasions.

The 12th Judicial District conflicted the case out to the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office.

As always, defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are convicted in a court of law.