Man sentenced to 45 years in prison for double murder in 2021

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two families have a little more closure after learning the fate of the man who killed their loved ones.

19-year-old Josef Toney shot and killed Aerial Mallam and Jessica Lucero in 2021. Now he will spend up to 45 years behind bars.

“How on earth do we explain this to our grandchildren? That’s not possible,” said Margaret Lucero, Jessica Lucero’s mother.

Toney will spend the next four decades behind bars after shooting and killing Aerial Mallam and Jessica Lucero in 2021.

On Wednesday, Bernalillo County District Judge Courtney Weaks sentenced Toney to 45 years in prison, with the possibility of probation after 38 years.

He was 15 in January 2021 when he went to the Aztec Village Apartments on Montgomery and killed both women. He also shot Mallam’s uncle, Stephen Mitchell, three times.

Mitchell survived, and he spoke in court Wednesday, explaining how his life changed forever.

“What it did to me, it didn’t just take the life of my niece, you know, someone I’ve watched since birth and helped raise. It took away my ability to work, my femur was shattered,” said Stephen Mitchell, a victim and Mallam’s uncle.

Mitchell was one of nine loved ones who spoke on behalf of Mallam and Jessica.

Jessica’s sister says she never got to say goodbye properly.

“We had to cremate my sister because she was shot in the head, and I never saw her face because they said it would be too hard for me to see. The best thing I got was saying goodbye to a body bag filled with corpses,” said Shantelle Rojo, Jessica Lucero’s sister.

Mallam’s 2-year-old daughter was also in the room when her mother was killed.

“Your Honor, he saw a two-year-old screaming and crying and looked her in the eyes as he shot two women,” Rayal said.

Last May, Toney reportedly escaped from the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center, a month after signing a plea agreement in the case.

Prosecutors say the escape prompted them to seek a maximum sentence of more than 80 years. But the judge ruled that was too harsh because Toney was 15 at the time of the murders.

Then it was Toney’s turn to say something. He apologized for what he did and said he now understands the seriousness of his actions.

“In the beginning you hit it straight away. When you said I was sorry for getting caught, because that was the case. That was it,” Josef Toney said. “It took me a lot of time and I learned a lot about real life situations. Like reading the news and reading books about real life and really understanding that life is something precious.”

There are conditions on Toney’s probation. For example, he has a job, does not own any weapons and cannot drink alcohol or use drugs.

Toney still faces charges in that alleged escape from juvenile detention. He turned himself in about 12 hours later. He will appear in court again in that case next month.