‘Wannabe Gangsters’

Prosecutors on Monday continued to forward their narrative that Estevan Montoya and his friends are members of a “gang” as they make their case for a Santa Fe County jury that Montoya murdered local basketball standout Fedonta “JB” White in 2020.

Montoya is a member of a group known as the Southside Goons. Since the incident on Aug. 1, 2020, the DA’s Office has painted the Goons as “violent” and “criminal.” In a pretrial detention hearing, Assistant District Attorney David Shapiro called Montoya someone who “unapologetically leads the life of [a] violent, drug-dealing gang member.”

The Goons and defense attorney Dan Marlowe have argued otherwise, saying the group is more interested in making music than breaking the law.

The state continued on Monday, as the trial entered its second week, with additional testimony from those who attended the party in Chupadero where White was shot. Jurors heard from witnesses about the moments leading up to the shooting, including when Montoya and his friends arrived at the home, and what happened directly after Montoya fired the gun.

As Montoya showed up “with his gang,” the gathering turned “quiet and fearful,” said Gabriella Malczewski, who testified on direct examination that she was standing 2 feet away from White when he was shot. The witness added she had seen the Goons use gang signs in the past, wear similar colored clothing and refer to themselves as a gang.

Malczewski said she saw Montoya hop a fence and take off running after he fired the shot, followed by others she knows to be associated with the group.

“After I saw it, all of his friends realized that something happened—a gun went off, something popped,” she told Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Padgett Macias. “They just started running for the hill, because that was the only way out.”

In his opening statements last week, Marlowe called the Goons a “group of boys” that are “wannabe gangsters.” He asked whether the panel knew about Los Carnales, the Brew Town Locos or Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico.

“Those are gangs,” Marlowe said.

The quarrel among Goons and others wasn’t the only confrontation the night White died. Just before that argument, which eventually led to a fight between White and Montoya, inside the home White’s girlfriend had gotten into a fight.

Jacquelyn Sisneros testified that although she had never been in a fight before, a friend of hers and another partygoer were fighting when a third girl joined in.

“My first instinct, because I wouldn’t want two people hitting me, was to defend my friend,” she said. “That’s when me and her started fighting.”

Shortly after, Sisneros’ cousin pulled her away when another witness ran inside to say White had been shot.

In anticipation of White’s autopsy photos to be submitted to the jury on Tuesday, Marlowe—in an effort “to show some serious consideration for the victim’s family”—asked Judge T. Glenn Ellington that the images not be displayed to the gallery. After Ellington denied the request, Marlowe asked that the gallery be instructed not to make any emotional outbursts.

“They will be displayed and if you believe that you’re going to have an emotional response to them—I think we all will have an emotional response to them at some level—but it cannot distract the jury and additional considerations for them,” Ellington said.

Dr. Lauren Decker, an expert in forensic pathology with the state Office of the Medical Investigator, is also expected to take the stand Tuesday. The pathology report is expected to serve as a key point in the defense’s argument that White was chasing Montoya when he was shot.