Johnathon Oliver Layman, a 25-year-old White/Caucasian man from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was killed on March 6, 2025, during a confrontation inside the garage of a residence at 9305 Academy Hills Drive NE in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights. At about 6:45 p.m., Albuquerque police were called to the 9300 block of Academy Hills Drive after reports of gunfire. Albuquerque Fire personnel also responded.
When emergency crews arrived, they found Layman suffering from at least one gunshot wound, and CPR was reportedly attempted, but he died at the scene. His full name and date of death are also reflected in an Albuquerque-area cremation notice.
The circumstances surrounding the shooting quickly led detectives to Jacob Bowers. According to reporting based on information released by the Albuquerque Police Department, Layman and his pregnant girlfriend had recently moved into the Academy Hills residence, where the girlfriend’s brother was living. The girlfriend had previously been in a relationship with Bowers. On the day of the shooting, she reportedly asked Bowers to give her a ride to the home. Bowers arrived there in a pickup truck, and witnesses later told investigators that he and Layman began arguing. Police alleged that the confrontation moved or continued into the garage and ended when Bowers shot Layman. Bowers then left the residence following the gunfire.
In the immediate aftermath, homicide detectives and crime-scene personnel remained around the Academy Hills property collecting evidence and trying to reconstruct what had happened. The case initially appeared on Albuquerque Police Department homicide records as an active firearm homicide at 9305 Academy Hills Drive NE. Detectives developed Bowers as the accused shooter, secured a warrant for his arrest and located him the following evening. Police arrested Bowers on March 7 in connection with Layman’s death. Contemporary local reporting identified him as 36 at the time and said investigators accused him of shooting Layman after their argument.
Bowers was formally accused of an open count of murder and tampering with evidence. Court records show that a felony criminal complaint was filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court on March 7, 2025, under case T-4-FR-2025-001730. An arrest warrant was issued that day and recorded as served on March 8. A public-safety assessment followed, and Bowers appeared before the court on March 10. Prosecutors filed an expedited motion seeking pretrial detention, and both the murder accusation and the tampering charge were transferred from Metropolitan Court for proceedings in state District Court. A superseding indictment was filed on March 21.
The case continued into the Second Judicial District Court, where a March 28, 2025 court calendar listed State of New Mexico v. Bowers under district-court case D-202-CR-2025-00948 for arraignment and indicated that the defendant was in custody. By April 11, Albuquerque Police Department homicide statistics had changed the Academy Hills case from active to solved. APD categorized the killing as domestic-violence related and identified a firearm as the weapon involved, reflecting the department’s position that an accused offender had been identified and charged.
The publicly available material located for this synopsis documents Bowers’ arrest, the murder and evidence-tampering allegations, the prosecution’s effort to keep him detained, the transfer to District Court, the superseding indictment and the subsequent arraignment process. Those sources do not document a completed trial, guilty verdict, acquittal or sentencing in Layman’s death. As reflected in the available records, the criminal case had progressed beyond the initial arrest stage into felony District Court proceedings, with Jacob Owen Bowers identified as the sole accused suspect in the fatal shooting.
