Police and federal agents connected businesses, vehicles, GPS records and witnesses across New Mexico after Gordon Wilson’s killing.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal guilty plea has closed the main question in a New Mexico investigation that connected a bank robbery, restaurant holdups, stolen vehicles and the fatal shooting of Gordon Wilson in Santa Fe.
Zachary Ryan Babitz, 40, pleaded guilty to federal charges after prosecutors said he carried out a 12-day run of robberies and carjackings across Bernalillo, Santa Fe and Doña Ana counties in 2024. The case became a federal matter involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office and police departments in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Under the plea agreement, both sides agreed that life imprisonment was the proper sentence.
The investigation did not start with one agency holding every piece. Albuquerque police had been examining a July 31, 2024, Wells Fargo robbery in northeast Albuquerque when Santa Fe police began working the Aug. 6 killing of Wilson, 83, in a Best Buy parking lot. Albuquerque detectives said they learned Santa Fe police had identified Babitz as the homicide suspect and that the suspect might be moving toward Albuquerque. Santa Fe police also shared a tentative identification and the location of the Jeep stolen after Wilson was shot. Albuquerque officers set up surveillance around the vehicle, then compared the new information with details from the bank robbery.
The bank evidence gave investigators a bridge between the earlier Albuquerque case and the later Santa Fe killing. Albuquerque police said the Wells Fargo robbery happened at 1:55 p.m. at 11199 Montgomery Blvd. NE. Detectives said the robber handed a demand note to a teller and indicated that he was armed. Prosecutors later said the robber took about $3,300. Police said the robber’s description, Babitz’s motor vehicle and booking photos, and witness information about a gold Chevrolet Tahoe lined up with records connected to Babitz. Detectives also said license plate reader information placed the Tahoe near the bank and that GPS records showed Babitz was there when the robbery happened.
That GPS trail mattered because Babitz was under supervision at the time. Albuquerque police said he was on probation from an armed robbery conviction and was required to wear an ankle monitor. Detectives said he still had the monitor on when the bank was robbed but cut it off before Wilson was killed. Corrections officials said Babitz had been released from New Mexico prison on March 12, 2024, after a 2019 sentence for robbery and receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles. He had received a 23-year sentence, but all except 10 years was suspended. Officials said he also received credit for time already served and good-time credit before release to parole and probation.
Federal prosecutors later widened the public timeline beyond the bank and Santa Fe homicide. They said Babitz entered an AutoZone in Albuquerque on July 30, 2024, armed with a 9mm handgun, demanded money and stole about $345. On Aug. 3, prosecutors said, he robbed a Jersey Mike’s restaurant at gunpoint, took cash from the register and forced an employee to open a safe. On Aug. 6, they said, he confronted Wilson with a firearm in Santa Fe County and shot him during a carjacking. Wilson died, and the stolen vehicle became one of the key items investigators tracked.
The case kept moving after Santa Fe police named Babitz as the suspect. Prosecutors said he carried out another carjacking in Bernalillo County on Aug. 9. On Aug. 10 in Las Cruces, they said, Babitz and an accomplice robbed an Arby’s restaurant at gunpoint and stole cash. Later that day, prosecutors said, they forced another victim from a vehicle using firearms. Police accounts said the pair fled, crashed and ran. Babitz was arrested, while the woman described as an accomplice escaped. Public records reviewed in the case did not make clear what happened to her afterward.
Santa Fe officials described the Best Buy shooting as especially alarming because of its setting. It happened around 10:30 a.m. in a public retail parking lot at 3533 Zafarano Drive. Santa Fe Police Chief Paul Joye said Babitz had cut off his ankle monitor and “immediately began wreaking havoc.” Capt. Thomas Grundler said it was unclear why Wilson had been targeted. He also said the cold and calculated nature of the daylight killing shocked the conscience and made residents feel more fear, even as police data showed some violent crime categories moving down.
The federal plea included charges that reflected the full map of the case. Babitz pleaded guilty to interference with commerce by robbery, bank robbery, carjacking resulting in death, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence and causing death, carjacking, aiding and abetting robbery and carjacking counts, brandishing firearm counts and felon in possession of a firearm. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison and Sarah Mauricio, acting special agent in charge of the ATF Phoenix Field Division, announced the plea. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maria Elena Stiteler and Natasha Moghadam are prosecuting.
Wilson’s personal history added another layer to the case. He was board chair of The Archaeological Conservancy and had served on its board for two decades. The group said he helped create management plans to preserve 25 to 30 sites and had earlier served 14 years on the board of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Before archaeology became his major volunteer focus, Wilson worked for 29 years in finance. Colleagues remembered him as intelligent, kind and generous. Mark Michel, president emeritus of the Conservancy, said people respected and liked Wilson because he was quiet, confident and gentle.
The guilty plea resolves the core federal case, but sentencing remains ahead. Prosecutors had previously moved toward the possibility of the death penalty before agreeing that life imprisonment would be the proper sentence. As of May 10, 2026, the next step is for the court to formally sentence Babitz under the plea agreement.
Author note: Last updated May 10, 2026.