Mom Who First Let Her 16-Year-Old Son Take Blame For Murder Is Now FINALLY Pleading Guilty!

A mom in New Mexico is finally behind bars and facing years in prison after pleading guilty to murder. We say “finally” because she initially let her 16-year-old son take the rap and go to jail for the crime!

This unbelievable saga started way back in March of 2022, when a 16-year-old boy named Josue Ruiz was shot dead in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ruiz had been shot and killed behind a restaurant called Lindy’s Diner in the downtown section of the city after an altercation.

At first, cops got a lead that another 16-year-old named Angelo Baldonado was involved. Per investigators, they discovered that Baldonado’s pregnant sister — who was dating the young victim before his death — had told Angelo and the rest of her family that Ruiz hit her. Angelo was arrested not long after the shooting — and then charged as an adult for the crime.

Related: 16-Year-Old Murders Entire Family — Then Drunkenly Calls 911 To Confess

And then… things turned from tragic to weird. According to court docs first obtained by Law & Crime, Baldonado’s 49-year-old mother Elizabeth Ortiz-Chavez (pictured above, in her mugshot) started corresponding with her teenage son in recorded jailhouse phone calls. During those calls, prison guards listened in as Baldonado let loose on his mom, telling her that he very nearly came forward with the actual truth — that SHE was Ruiz’s shooter — before she was able to convince him to take the fall for the murder for the sake of their family.

WTF?!?!

In turn, prosecutors then started looking more deeply into the case. According to their investigation, Ortiz-Chavez’s plan was to have her teenage son cop to the murder because he was a minor, and thus, he would receive a lesser sentence. And maybe that would have worked — er, uh, for the mother, at least. But as we noted up top, her son was charged as an adult.

Then, nearly a year after the shooting — in March of 2023 while Baldonado continued to languish in jail — Elizabeth’s other son, Angelo’s brother Gilbert, started conversing with a woman on Facebook. During their chats, Gilbert revealed that it was actually his MOM who pulled the trigger that killed Ruiz! And not only that, but Elizabeth had indeed leaned hard on Angelo to take the fall for it!

Per Law & Crime, the investigating detective’s complaint stated that the unidentified woman to whom Gilbert had been speaking on Facebook was the one who came forward with the initial information:

“She advised me that during their conversations, Gilbert did advise her that Angelo and his mother, Elizabeth Ortiz-Chavez, had gone to fight Josue and that Josue tried to pull a gun on them and that he got shot before he could take out his gun, but that detectives had charged his brother with the murder. Gilbert also disclosed that the ‘crazy part about it’ was that his brother is not ‘telling’ on his mom.”

Elsewhere in the message, Gilbert expressed serious (and understandable) frustration over the fact that his mom would not only be responsible for the shooting but also let her own flesh-and-blood take on the consequences! In one particularly damning message to the woman, Gilbert wrote:

“I have an older brother locked up because of her. I hate her for what she did. He deserves to be home with his daughter. She’ll never know him at all because [Ortiz-Chavez] is a selfish bitch. She’s the worst of the worst.”

Unreal!

After this woman came forward with the messages, cops sprung into action and re-initiated their investigation. And now, in a court appearance on Wednesday, Ortiz-Chavez finally copped to her real role in the shooting death of Ruiz and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. She’ll be sentenced later this spring by a New Mexico judge, and faces up to 18 years in prison following the guilty plea.

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FWIW, even though Angelo didn’t pull the trigger that killed Ruiz, he didn’t get out of jail scot-free, either. Because he both organized and participated in the deadly fight, he was sentenced to four years in years in prison for assault and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. But at least he’ll get out at 20 years old — early enough to live a whole life.

Here’s more on this shocking case (below):

Mom of the year right there, y’all…

Jokes aside, tho, what an insane story. Reactions??

[Image via Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office]