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Prosecutors reach plea deal with teen who shot a fellow student outside West Mesa High School in 2022.
Al Burson, wearing his son Andrew鈥檚 ring, next to a photo of his son in April. Andrew Burson, 16, was shot and killed off campus of West Mesa High School last year.
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Prosecutors reached a plea agreement of second-degree murder with an Albuquerque teen who shot and killed fellow student Andrew Burson just outside of West Mesa High School in 2022.
Marco Trejo, 16, will be transferred into the custody of the state Children, Youth and Families Department at a juvenile facility until he鈥檚 21, according to documents filed Friday in children鈥檚 court.
Trejo, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was originally charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and unlawfully carrying a gun as a minor, defense attorney Marie Legrand Miller said.
He previously pleaded not guilty to those charges, she added, and has been in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center since his February 2022 arrest.
Trejo took the plea as a youthful offender, and the other charges he faced will be dropped as part of the agreement.
Andrew Burson, investigators said, was shot during a fight over a 鈥済host gun鈥� he claimed Trejo had stolen from him.
Andrew Burson was 16. His father, Al Burson, said Friday that he felt 鈥渞elieved, but sad鈥� about the agreement.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like we鈥檙e checking the final box,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 still a lot of sadness there.鈥�
Al Burson added that he and some of his family wished the sentence was longer and had mixed feelings about whether justice had been done.
He said he was told by the District Attorney鈥檚 Office they didn鈥檛 think they could secure a first-degree murder conviction, and that they cited the uncertainties involved in jury trials in their reasoning for the plea agreement.
鈥淚 understand the sentence. I don鈥檛 agree with it. I think it should have been longer. But I am a grieving parent, so I can understand,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 in the best interest of everybody, even though I would have preferred about twice the amount of time.鈥�
Through a spokeswoman, 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman declined to comment further on this story beyond what the office posted on social media.
Legrand Miller said the shooting was a sign of both Trejo鈥檚 maturity level at the time and of the proliferation of guns among teenagers, adding that 鈥淢arco has demonstrated during the time that he鈥檚 been in custody in juvenile detention that he is 鈥� remorseful and has the ability to change and mature and grow.鈥�
鈥淢arco鈥檚 a good kid. He made a bad mistake, and he鈥檚 taken responsibility for it,鈥� Legrand Miller said.
鈥淚t was only the presence of a firearm that caused this to turn into a tragedy,鈥� she added, noting that wasn鈥檛 meant to blame the victim but as a comment on how what might have been an ordinary fight instead escalated into a deadly shooting. 鈥淗e鈥檚 not some cold-blooded killer kid.鈥�
