Family and friends of 13-year-old Amber Archuleta and the boy accused of killing her, 14-year-old Porfirio Brown, on Wednesday listened to a harrowing 911 call in which three teens reported the Questa girl’s July 28 shooting death.
The frenzied call, made by Archuleta’s girlfriend, 14-year-old Kianna Gonzalez, included claims by Brown and Frankie Archuleta, the victim’s brother, she had been shot in the face in a random drive-by shooting.
Brown later that day was recorded telling investigators he had seen a suspicious black SUV with tinted windows drive by his home in Questa. Investigators said he has not recanted his story.
Gonzalez and Frankie Archuleta told investigators a different story. In videos played Wednesday in a state District Court hearing in Brown’s case, the pair said Brown had shot Amber Archuleta in the face, point blank, while playing around with a revolver at his parents’ home. He subsequently dragged her body outside near a road and asked the other teens to confirm the drive-by shooting story, they told investigators.
Both teens said they refused to help Brown move the body and would not further corroborate the concocted drive-by.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys were unable to complete Wednesday’s hearing, held in part to decide if Brown will be tried as a youthful offender or as an adult.
Defense Attorney Lizzy Bunker said state District Judge Jeffrey Shannon could determine whether Brown will face a count of first-degree murder or a lesser charge. Shannon also could determine Friday if Brown will be released on bond or remain detained at the San Juan Juvenile Detention Center in Farmington, where has been held since his July 28 arrest.
Attorneys called at least nine witnesses Wednesday and presented dozens of photographs and 10 videos of witness interviews.
Bunker said she is unsure if she will be able to question Frankie Archuleta or Gonzalez when the hearing resumes Friday, as evidence that emerges might implicate the teens.
Investigators have been unable to find the weapon used to shoot Amber Archuleta.
Fragments of a projectile were recovered from her brain and from the back of her head during an autopsy, New Mexico State Police investigator Shane Faulkner testified.
State prosecutor Tim Hasson presented photographs of a number of guns found in Brown’s home, including an AK-47, an assault rifle with a pistol grip, shotguns, .22-caliber rifles, boxes of ammunition, loose shells and two belts loaded with shells.
Frankie Archuleta and Gonzalez said in recorded interviews they had been enjoying an afternoon, herding sheep back into a pasture and hanging out when Brown suddenly brandished a “cowboy style” revolver and pointed it at Amber Archuleta.
“Porf pulled out a gun, black with a wooden handle,” Gonzalez recollected. “I looked to see and there was a flash, but she was already going down.”
Gonzalez initially said in an interview Amber Archuleta was shot after she pushed the gun from her face; she later said Brown and the girl had struggled over the weapon, though no one was fighting and all were in good humor.
William Brown, 39, the father of Porfirio Brown, attended his son’s hearing after being charged with negligently making a firearm accessible to a minor resulting in death, a fourth-degree felony recently added to New Mexico statutes following the passage earlier this year of the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act.
Porfirio Brown’s mother, Ashley Baumgartner, and his sister, Alexis Brown, 16, also testified, painting the family as trained in gun use with knowledge about the weaponry in their home; neither could say, however, how many guns exist in the home or exactly what types.
Baumgartner estimated at least 20 weapons might be in the home.
Alexis Brown said the guns were not loaded and were kept locked or in safes, but Faulkner testified the AK-47 and another rifle were easily spotted through an open closet in the parents’ bedroom and and other rifles were visible in the living room and other bedrooms.
Hasson homed in on a box found in a bedroom that had contained a Heritage Rough Rider revolver with a 6.5-inch barrel and wooden grip — matching Gonzalez and Frankie Archuleta’s descriptions of the gun used to shoot Amber Archuleta.
Porfirio Brown’s grandmother, Wanda Graham, said the gun had been given to her as a gift in June by her son, William Brown, and Baumgartner, and although she learned last week the gun was of concern in the case, left it at her Carlsbad home when she traveled to Taos for the hearing.
Faulkner testified blood was discovered in the kitchen, laundry room and bedrooms of the Brown home.
Gonzalez and Frankie Archuleta said in videos Porfirio Brown had mopped blood from the home before police arrived.
Baumgartner said when her son called her at work to tell her of the shooting, he told her the incident was the result of a drive-by shooting.
Frankie Archuleta and Gonzalez said before the hearing Brown was a close family friend, and they had spent holidays and vacations together.
“I’ve known him since kindergarten,” Gonzalez said, adding she had never had a reason to fear him.
Joshua Archuleta, Amber Archuleta’s father, appeared grief-stricken and nervous before facing Brown for the first time since his arrest.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it all last night,” he said before the hearing. “It’s completely mind-blowing, and I cannot wrap my head around it.
“She played the guitar and did mariachi,” he said. “The day before this happened, she had sat all day in her room just playing her guitar learning this song by Justin Bieber. By the end of the day, she had it all down.”











