The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico has announced its intention to seek the death penalty against Zachary Babitz, 39. This follows a Notice of Intent filed on October 22, 2025.
Babitz faces a 13-count indictment with charges that include multiple robberies, bank robbery, carjackings—including one resulting in death—and several firearms offenses. The incidents listed in the indictment occurred between July 30 and August 10, 2024.
Counts six and seven of the indictment—carjacking resulting in death and using a firearm causing death—carry a maximum penalty of death. The decision to pursue capital punishment was authorized by Attorney General Bondi and directed to the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison and Brendan Iber, Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), announced this development.
According to officials, “An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
The ATF led the investigation with assistance from police departments in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces. Assistant United States Attorneys Maria Elena Stiteler and Natasha Moghadam are prosecuting the case.
