2013 South Valley homicides

The 15-year-old eldest son of the family, Nehemiah Griego, was arrested and charged with the shootings.

According to police, the suspect Nehemiah Griego, 15 years old, shot and killed his parents and three siblings at their house in South Valley, New Mexico, near Albuquerque.

He said his younger brother Zephaniah woke up, and Griego told him he had shot their mother.

[4] Griego went downstairs to wait for his father to return home from his shift at a homeless shelter.

When the father returned about 5 a.m., Griego shot him four times with an AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle with a scope.

[5] Afterward Griego changed his account of the events and made a statement to police, saying that he had been having suicidal and homicidal thoughts.

[5] The five victims were Greg Griego and his wife Sarah, and their three younger children, a son and two daughters.

The murdered children, nine-year-old Zephaniah, five-year-old Jael, and two-year-old Angelina, were Nehemiah's younger siblings living at home.

Extended family members supported the idea of an amenability hearing to determine whether the youth could be treated, and did not want to see the case go to trial.

[11] On February 11, 2016, Judge John J. Romero of the New Mexico Children's Court determined that, based on mental health evaluations, Griego is "amenable to treatment" and would be sentenced as a juvenile.

[13] Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg announced that she would be appealing the ruling.