The young woman was playing the scavenger hunt game when she stumbled upon a real-life monster — who murdered another high school student just weeks prior. Bizarrely, prosecutors say both slayings were cases of mistaken identity.
Just before midnight on October 18, 2019, Cayla Campos was playing Pokémon Go when she stumbled into the middle of an armed robbery in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The 21-year-old was playing the augmented reality game — which features scavenger hunts — with her boyfriend on that fateful night.
When Cayla attempted to escape the scene in her car, she was shot in the head and then crashed into a nearby residence.
Nearly five years later, her killer, Izaiah Garcia, has finally been convicted of a litany of crimes — including first degree murder.
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Last Thursday, Garcia was found guilty on all counts against him stemming from the 2019 incident.
Garcia, now 23, was 19 years old at the time of Cayla’s murder. He was convicted last week in Albuquerque of first-degree murder, depraved mind murder, shooting at a motor vehicle, armed robbery, assault with intent to commit a violent felony, tampering with evidence, child abuse and conspiracy.
“I am extremely proud of the fact that we were able to secure justice for Cayla’s family,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez stated in a press release. “I also know that nothing we accomplished in the courtroom will ever heal their pain or replace the loss to our community.”
On that fateful October night in 2019, Cayla and her boyfriend were playing the game in a nearby park; playing Pokémon Go in the surrounding area of her apartment was an almost nightly routine for the couple. However, while hunting for the digital creatures to add her to her collection, she stumbled upon a grim reality that would ultimately take her life.
Cayla and her boyfriend witnessed Garcia and an accomplice hold up three teens at gunpoint. When the couple attempted to flee in their car. Garcia, apparently believing they were a criminal rival, took aim at their vehicle with a rifle — resulting in Cayla losing her life.
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“He killed Cayla Campos intentionally, but he did so thinking it was somebody else,” the lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant Attorney General John Duran, said in closing arguments, per the Albuquerque Journal.
Garcia, meanwhile, is already serving another life sentence for a different murder — that of 17-year-old high school student Sean Markey, who was also slain in 2019 just weeks before Cayla’s murder. He was convicted of that prior killing in 2021.
According to prosecutors, both murders were a case of mistaken identity, where Garcia intended to shoot someone else.
For Cayla’s murder, Garcia faces another potential life sentence in addition to added time for the other crimes linked to the case.
The DA is asking for the convict’s sentences to be consecutive, as life sentences in New Mexico become eligible for parole after 30 years.
CBS and Fox affiliate KRQE, spoke with Cayla’s father, Carl Campos, who said: “We’re extremely happy with the verdict today, although nothing is ever going to bring Cayla back.”
“We know that. At least she’s got her slice of justice now.”
In statements to the Albuquerque Journal, the grieving father noted it was hard to get out of bed in the morning in the wake of his child’s murder.
“When you bury a child, that’s the way it is,” he concluded.
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