Sally Sanchez
My name is Sally Sanchez, I am one of the three Co-founders of the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice and this is my story. I am a mother to 3 beautiful children. I have two daughters who live in Albuquerque and my son Antonio who is my angel in heaven. My journey started on December 16, 2020, at 3:09 p.m. Antonio was living at a house on 8th Street with two other roommates. He had reconnected via Facebook with an old girlfriend and on December 13, 2020, she went to his home. In three days, she plotted with another person to have my son robbed and killed. During their plotting they brought in two other males and a female. On December 16th, she and them fought my son, tied him up, then executed him in his own home. Antonio was born on December 23, 1987, his murder was exactly one week to the day of his birthday, my son never made it to 33 years old. He will forever be 32.
When I found out that my son had been taken from us in such a heinous way, I was angry, I was in shock, I was in disbelief, but most of all my heart had been ripped out of my chest. Antonio was the youngest of my three children and my only son. What I came to realize is that I was lost in this new life that I had been given. I didn’t know of any resources; I didn’t know what the next step was. Yes, you plan a funeral service but then what. One day I was scrolling through Facebook and came across a video of a mother (Alicia Otero) whose son was just murdered. She was crying, she was angry, she felt lost, everything I had been going through, so I reached out to her as I felt her pain, I was her.
During our conversations we realized that in the State of New Mexico there are limited services for the families of the victims. Due to covid everything was closed, back logged, or out of service. We both were directed to NIA/NM for grief support. That is where we started our grief support, the only agency in New Mexico who could help me to understand what I was feeling and dealing with. I was then introduced to another mother (Josette Otero) who had her son murdered before mine. I invited her to NIA/NM to see if it would help her with her immense grief. You now can see how the three of us became to be the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice, the voice of our loved one who can no longer speak for themselves. To honor them till our last breath, to fight for justice, and to celebrate the life they lived.
Alicia Otero
My name is Alicia Otero and I am one of the Co-Founders of the NM Crusaders for Justice. I have been married 25 years and we have 4 beautiful children. An unfortunate loss to my family was the loss of my oldest son Elias Otero on February 11th of 2021.
On the Night of February 11th 2021 my youngest son was lured on social media by a female. He went to meet her that night in a park here in my home town of Albuquerque NM. When he arrived he was ambushed by 3 assailants. He was dragged out of the car, beaten and forced to undress. They planned this robbery and they thought they were going to be getting cash from Nick. When they found out he had no cash they were livid and demanded Cash immediately or they would kill him.
Nick didn’t know where to take them so he took them to his oldest brother’s house because Elias was trained in firearm safety and had firearms at his home. When they arrived , Nick called from outside and told Elias he was outside and needed $1000 in cash or they would kill him. Elias was always the protector of his siblings and was not going to let this happen. When Elias went outside he went with his firearms and demanded them to let his brother go.
Elias was shot 5 times and passed away in the driveway of his home.
After experiencing criminals taking my child’s life . I had no idea what to do so I reached out to the community and social media. There Sally Sanchez reached out to me and I found great comfort in speaking to her. Almost one year before the loss of my son , I lost my Nephew Kyle Martinez. My sister in law Josette Otero and Sally helped me tremendously in my lowest point in my life. We decided something had to be done.
Through our journey and new lives, we noticed there was no communication with law enforcement or resources for the families of homicide. We also noticed what weak laws and lack of accountability we have here in the state of NM. Us three created the NM Crusaders for Justice.
We Are the voices for our children and all families of homicide. We fight for better laws and accountability while offering resources and group support to all families.
Josette Otero
My name is Josette Otero. I am one of the three co-founders for The New Mexico Crusaders for Justice. I am a mother to two beautiful children, a daughter and my son who is my Angel in heaven. I have been blessed with 3 grandchildren who are my life. I joined the group in May of 2021. I’m in this group because my only son was taken by gun violence at the age of 15 on April 22, 2020. My son was driving on the highway when he noticed a car following him. He and his friend exited on Unser when the other car started chasing him and almost hit him a couple of times. My son tried to get away but got a red light and the murderer pulled up on the median on the passenger side they exchanged some words. Kevin Metzgar then pulled a micro-Draco and shot 3 times hitting my son’s friend in arm exiting out other arm and going into my son as all the bullets went into my son Kyle Martinez. He was rushed into surgery where he passed away during surgery. I have made it my passion to honor my son in everything I do as well as honoring other families loved ones. I’ve been appointed as the Director of Events for the group. I put together our Annual Easter and Christmas events for the children left behind. I put together our candlelight vigils for the families and any other event that comes up. I’m very honored to be part of this group and to support other families who are going through the nightmare we all share. The Co-founders of this group wanted to make sure no-one would have to feel the way we did when our kids were taken, and we had no idea where to turn so we put a checklist together with resources for other families.