Police have arrested the alleged getaway driver — and charged two others — in a 2021 robbery turned homicide that played out in a room at a motel in Northeast Albuquerque.
Genea Oliver (MDC)
Genea Oliver, 34, is charged with an open count of murder, armed robbery and conspiracy in the April 2 death of 33-year-old Rony Carrera-Flores. She was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center early Thursday morning.
The alleged shooter, Christopher Maldonado, 35, and his girlfriend Monique Montano, 32, are facing similar charges and a warrant has been issued for the pair’s arrest.
Christopher Maldonado in a May 2022 booking photo (MDC)
Monique Montano in a August 2020 booking photo (MDC)
Oliver’s criminal history includes drug-related charges. It is unclear if she has an attorney.
Maldonado and Montano were stopped in a stolen vehicle in May, according to court records, and Maldonado was arrested but the case was dropped by prosecutors when they couldn’t locate the vehicle owner.
Montano is currently awaiting trial in a 2020 case where she and Maldonado allegedly broke into a storage unit, according to court records, but the same case against Maldonado was dropped in April when the officer failed to show up.
The 2021 homicide happened in the early hours of April 2, 2021.
Officers responded around 6:30 am to the Travelodge motel near Interstate 40 and Juan Tabo and found Carrera-Flores shot to death inside a room, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. A woman staying in the same room told police a woman had knocked on the door asking to use a phone.
Police said she told them the woman was “acting strange” before a man walked in with a gun and robbed Carrera-Flores before shooting him in the head. Multiple witnesses told police the pair left in a white sedan driven by another woman.
A man staying at the motel told police the pair who robbed Carrera-Flores were named Christopher and Monique and the driver was Genea, according to the complaint. He said Christopher told him he was going to rob Carrera-Flores hours beforehand and he saw Christopher outside the room after the shooting.
Police said that man was found dead several months later in a gas station bathroom, surrounded by drug paraphernalia and blue tablets, in Northwest Albuquerque. Police used the names he gave as well as cell phone data to identify the trio as Maldonado, Montano and Oliver.
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Two witnesses picked Maldonado and Montano out of a photo array as the shooter and the woman who asked to use the phone before the incident, according to the complaint. Police interviewed Oliver and she denied having anything to do with the robbery and told police she was at home with her children.
Police said when detectives questioned her further Oliver requested an attorney.
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