Nehemiah Griego was a fifteen year old living in New Mexico when he would murder his parents and three siblings
According to court documents Nehemiah Griego was armed with a AR-15 when he would fatally shoot his mother and three younger siblings, ages 9, 5 and 2.
Nehemiah Griego would then wait for his father to return from work and would fatally shoot him
Nehemiah Griego would be arrested and convicted of the five murders
Initially Nehemiah Griego was sentenced to youth detention however it was later determined he was not responding to treatment and would be sentenced to life in prison as an adult
Nehemiah Griego Current Information
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Offender ID: | 531136 |
| NMCD Number: | 87474 |
| Last Name: | Griego |
| First Name: | Nehemiah |
| Middle Name: | Nefratlie |
| Offender Status: | INMATE |
| Facility/Region: | NMCD CUSTODY |
| Demographics | |
|---|---|
| Age: | 28 |
| Height: | 5 ft 8 in |
| Weight: | 140 |
| Eye Color: | Hazel |
| Hair: | Black |
| Religion: | |
| Education: | |
| Complexion: | Olive |
| Ethnicity: | Hispanic |
| Alias: | No Alias Found |
| Current Offense(s) | |
|---|---|
| Offense | Court Judgment |
| Child Abuse (Death) (Intentional) (Child Under 12) [ D-202-CR-201300536 ] | Guilty Plea |
| Murder in the second degree [ D-202-CR-201300536 ] | Guilty Plea |
| Murder in the second degree [ D-202-CR-201300536 ] | Guilty Plea |
| Child Abuse (Death) (Intentional) (Child Under 12) [ D-202-CR-201300536 ] | Guilty Plea |
| Child Abuse (Death) (Intentional) (Child Under 12) [ D-202-CR-201300536 ] | Guilty Plea |
Nehemiah Griego Case
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday has upheld the life prison sentence of a man who was convicted of fatally shooting his parents and three younger siblings when he was a teenager.
In a dispositional order Thursday, the state’s high court rejected arguments by Nehemiah Griego that his sentence was unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment because it denied him an opportunity for treatment and rehabilitation.
Griego was 15 at the time of the 2013 killings at his family’s home in Albuquerque.
He was convicted of intentional child abuse resulting in death and two concurrent seven-year sentences for second-degree murder for his parent’s deaths.
Griego was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.
A district court judge found Griego not amendable to treatment as a juvenile and in 2019 sentenced him as an adult to the state prison system.
Now 25, Greigo will be eligible for parole when he’s 52.
In his appeal, Griego also argued his convictions should be overturned because his trial attorney was ineffective.
The court order said Griego “merely surmises his treatment will be inadequate” in prison and he “failed to establish that he does not have a ‘meaningful opportunity for release’ after serving” his sentence.
Griego’s legal team is meeting to determine the most appropriate next step in his case.
“It is easy to give up on children who commit terrible crimes and write them off as hopeless. But the truth is that these crimes are rooted in trauma and mental illness and many of the children involved can and will eventually be rehabilitated,” said Allison Jaramillo, Griego’s attorney.
“Instead of offering this chance for Nehemiah by finding his three life sentences to be cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court’s decision means that he will spend his life in prison for crimes he committed as a child. New Mexico should protect children from the cruel fate Nehemiah is now facing, not give up on them,” Jaramillo added.
Life prison term upheld for New Mexico man who killed family | AP News
Nehemiah Griego News
The teenager accused of gunning down his parents and three siblings in their New Mexico home had hoped to go on a killing spree and die in a shootout with police, investigators said Tuesday.
Nehemiah Griego, 15, will stand trial as an adult in the weekend killings, prosecutors announced. He was arrested Saturday night, after deputies found the bodies of his mother, father, brother and two of his sisters in their home on the outskirts of Albuquerque.
Griego told investigators he hoped to end his spree “at a Walmart, with mass destruction,” Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston told reporters.
Griego told investigators he was “frustrated with his mother,” but “he did not articulate that to our investigators any further or give any explanation of that at all,” Houston said.
“This is beyond any human reasoning or understanding at this time,” he said.
The teen had been scheduled to appear in court Tuesday to face two counts of murder and three counts of child abuse resulting in death, but the hearing was waived, according to CNN affiliate KOAT reported. The station said Griego’s case will go to a grand jury in 10 days.
Houston said the arrest came after Griego went to the family’s church with his girlfriend, to whom he had sent a picture of his slain mother, and a staff member called deputies.
The youth’s father, Greg Griego, was a former pastor at an Albuquerque church and a chaplain to the city’s fire department who also worked with prisoners. He’s believed to have been the last of the victims, gunned down about 5 a.m. Saturday when he came home from working the graveyard shift at a homeless shelter, Houston said.
The killings had begun about four hours earlier, when Nehemiah Griego shot and killed his mother, Sarah Griego, while she slept. The shot from the .22-caliber rifle woke his 9-year-old brother Zephania, who had been asleep next to her, an arrest affidavit recounted.
When the teen told Zephania that their mother was dead, “Nehemiah stated his brother did not believe him,” the affidavit states. “So Nehemiah picked up his mother’s head to show his brother her bloody face. Nehemiah stated his brother became upset, so he shot his brother in the head with the same rifle used to kill his mother.”
After that, “Nehemiah stated he lost his sense of conscience” and went on to kill his sisters, 5-year-old Jael and 2-year-old Angelina, police said.
After the slayings, Griego “spent the majority of the day with his girlfriend,” whose conduct remains a focus of the investigation, Houston said.
Most of the victims were shot with the .22, but a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle was also used in the killings, sheriff’s Lt. Sid Covington said. The Griegos had five other grown children, none of whom lived at home, Covington said.
Police said in a statement the weapons appear to have been purchased legally.
Albuquerque teen accused of killing 5 wanted a massacre, sheriff says | CNN
