Julius Baroz sentenced to 25 years in DOC

ALAMOSA — On Friday, District Judge Michael Gonzales sentenced Adre Baroz, 29, to the Department of Corrections where he will serve five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders of Korina Arroyo, Selena Esquibel, Myron Robert Martinez, Xavier Zeven Garcia and Shayla Hammel.

As court documents in each case obtained by the Valley Courier revealed, Baroz brutally murdered the five people – including his youngest victim, Selena Esquibel, who was only 19 years old — over a period of time from August 25, 2020 to November 13, 2020, a space of just seven weeks.

Gonzales further sentenced Baroz to an additional total of 140 years for two counts of assault, one count of kidnapping and five counts of tampering with the remains of a deceased human body. As with the charges of murder in the first degree, the additional charges will be served consecutively. Given Baroz's age, the sentences, combined, equal roughly 375 years.

“You’re going to be locked up for the rest of your life,” Gonzales said to Baroz.

David Lipka, defense counsel, told the court Baroz takes full responsibility for his actions and entered his guilty plea to “spare the victims’ families the pain of a court trial.” Lipka also said that extensive psychological evaluations revealed that Baroz’s actions were attributed to methamphetamine induced psychosis.

“That is not an excuse for his actions,” Lipka said. “It’s just an explanation.”

In separate proceedings, Julius Baroz, 34-year-old older brother of Adre Baroz, was given the maximum sentence of 25 years for pleading guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Myron Martinez.

According to documents from the court obtained by the Valley Courier, Adre Baroz was attempting to murder Myron Martinez and called for Julius to help him. Documents say that Julius held Martinez down while his younger brother slit his throat.

In sentencing him, District Judge Michael Gonzales said, “I see you’re different from your brother. You’ve supported members of your family. You’re this wonderful dad who’s done all these things. You’ve worked. People in your family love you.

"But I’m sentencing you because of what you’ve done. You made the choice and the decision to hold Myron Martinez down. If there’s one person who could have saved some lives in this situation, it was you. You could have saved other people’s lives, but you didn’t. You made the choice not to, and you robbed Myron’s parents the chance to see him grow up as you will see your children grow up. I understand Adre’s your brother but you did nothing to stop him.

“To sentence you to anything less than the maximum allowed under the law would be a disservice to Myron Martinez and his family who will never be the same.”

Francisco Ramirez, the third co-defendant, had not been sentenced as of press time. A more comprehensive story of the close of the Los Sauces case will appear in Tuesday’s Valley Courier.