May 30—A couple is accused of carjacking a Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court judge while she was with her children Tuesday morning outside her home in Northeast Albuquerque.

Daniella Sandoval, 20, and Joshua Dawson, 30, are each charged with armed robbery, tampering with evidence, auto theft and conspiracy in the case.

Both have been booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Sandoval told police she used a BB gun to carjack Judge Claire McDaniel, and officers found the BB gun after recovering the judge’s stolen SUV, according to court records.

Both Dawson and Sandoval had been in McDaniel’s courtroom on unrelated cases: Dawson in a vehicle burglary in 2023 and Sandoval in the robbery of a Dollar Tree store in February.

Prosecutors did not file for pretrial detention in Sandoval’s case, and she was placed on pretrial release May 17.

When asked if McDaniel remembered the suspects from her courtroom, Metro Court spokeswoman Camille Baca said “per the Judicial Code of Conduct, the Judge and the Court cannot comment on pending cases.”

Around 8 a.m., officers responded to a carjacking in a neighborhood near San Pedro and Candelaria, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. McDaniel told police she was putting her children in the SUV when a couple walked up and the woman put a gun to her head.

Police said McDaniel told them the woman told her to get the children out of the SUV but, when the judge reached for her purse, the woman told her to leave it “if she cared about her family.” Around 2:45 p.m., police found the SUV in a backyard near Central and Old Coors and took Sandoval and Dawson into custody.

Sandoval initially told police her mother committed the carjacking before saying she wanted to tell the “real story,” according to the complaint. Sandoval said she and Dawson were walking “for several hours” when she saw a woman loading her children in an SUV and “realized this was an opportunity.”

Police said Sandoval told them she carjacked the woman using a BB gun she had and officers would find the gun in the SUV. Officers searched McDaniel’s SUV and found a black BB gun under the driver’s seat.