Feb. 5—A state district judge sentenced a Santa Fe teenager to 25 years in prison Monday for killing a man he’d arranged to meet in 2022 at Ragle Park.

In arguing for a life sentence, a prosecutor said Judah Trujillo, 17, showed no remorse for killing Samuel Cordero and bragged about the killing in rap lyrics he penned after the shooting.

Police discovered Cordero’s body in a shelter at the park and connected his death to Trujillo through data obtained from Google, as well as home surveillance video, according to court documents and testimony provided at his November trial.

Trujillo, 17, testified he had met Cordero, 60, at the park after the two connected on the LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr.

Assistant District Attorney Jeanine L. Salustri asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to sentence Trujillo to life in prison on his first-degree murder conviction plus three years for a conviction on a charge of tampering with evidence. She argued the killing wasn’t a moment of bad judgment but a series of premeditated actions.

The prosecutor said Trujillo engaged Cordero online, arranged to meet him at the park, took his parents’ gun, found the key to unlock a safety device on the weapon, then took the loaded weapon to the park.

“He came up behind Mr. Cordero and shot him in the back of the head,” Salustri said. “[Office of the Medical Investigator] testified the direction of the the bullet was from the back of the head at the base and exited through the forehead at an upward angle.”

Salustri argued Trujillo should not get a lenient sentence, in part because a pre-sentence report indicated the teen had shown no remorse and hadn’t grasped the severity of his crime.

Salustri said Trujillo told a probation officer he was “sorry a life was taken,” and if he had it to do over again he never would have left home that night.

“But it was the defendant who took that life,” she said. “That’s not regret for what he did … there is no mention of the victim, and there’s no regret for shooting and killing Mr. Cordero.”

In fact, the prosecutor added, Trujillo had shown a “perverse kind of pride in his action” and had been glorifying the crime — bragging about the killing in rap lyrics he wrote after the shooting.

Trujillo’s defense attorney, Jerry Archuleta, asked the court to sentence Trujillo to “less than 15 years” with the first part of his sentence, until age 21, spent at a youth detention center. He said Trujillo had acted in self-defense when he shot Cordero, whom Archuleta accused of being a child predator who went to the park that night to “commit statutory rape on Judah.”

Archuleta argued Trujillo was remorseful, but the state Corrections Department’s Probation and Parole division, which prepared the pre-sentence report, “doesn’t understand the adolescent mind.”

The teen armed himself before going to the park because he was going to meet a strange man and wanted to protect himself, not because he planned to kill anyone, Archuleta argued.

Archuleta said the pre-sentence report didn’t take into consideration Trujillo had been doing well in school and had no disciplinary incidents while awaiting trial at a youth detention center, citing scientific literature that showed risky or anti-social behavior in teens was “fleeting” and likely to end as a person reached maturity.

“Judah said he wishes he hadn’t take a life; that is remorse,” the defense attorney said. “Judah didn’t want to have to go to the park while he’s exploring his sexuality, and for him to have to kill Sam Cordero.”

Archuleta said Cordero, at the time of his death a caregiver at an assisted living facility, had pictures of underage men on his Facebook account, contending police didn’t investigate that angle because it didn’t fit prosecutors’ narrative.

But Sommer said Trujillo had been “victim blaming” throughout the trial and “the facts don’t support your version of events.”

“This was premeditated,” the judge said, adding she was giving Trujillo less than a life sentence because he is a teen. “But I’m not going to spare you from the 25 … because of your lack of remorse, teen or not.”

Trujillo looked over his shoulder toward the gallery as he addressed the court Monday.

“Not a day passes that I’m not sorry for what has happened and that I wish I could change it,” he said. “I’ve been getting close to God, and every night I pray for the family of the victim.

“I hope you guys find it in your heart to forgive me whether it’s now or years from now,” he said. “That’s all I want, is just forgiveness. I know what I did is wrong. I know a life was taken and I’m sorry. I never meant for this. It was not my intention. It was not what I wanted to happen.”

Salustri read letters from Cordero’s mother and and sister, who had planned to attend but had decided at the last minute they couldn’t, the prosecutor said.

Cordero’s mother described the victim as her friend, confidant, roommate and shopping partner, as well as her caregiver, noting he had covered two-thirds of their shared living expenses, and she’s struggled to get by since his death.

Archuleta read letters from Trujillo’s mother and father. His father wrote he thought he’d taught his son morals, values and respect and “never thought darkness would come into our lives” and the life of the Cordero family.

Trujillo’s mother, Rachel Martinez, wrote in part she’d known her son was going through some things she wished he’d opened up about.

Martinez has been charged with tampering with evidence and conspiracy in the case on suspicion she helped Trujillo dispose of Cordero’s cell phone, which a passerby later found in a plastic bag on the side of the road near the park. She is scheduled to stand trial in August.