Brayden Matthew Alvarado was convicted of kidnapping resulting in death and carjacking resulting in death in the 2023 killing of Abel Patrick Tarin.

Organ Mountain News report

EL PASO - A Vado man was sentenced to life in federal prison for the 2023 carjacking, kidnapping and murder of a Las Cruces man, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Brayden Matthew Alvarado, 23, was sentenced in federal court in El Paso after a jury convicted him of kidnapping resulting in death and carjacking resulting in death.

The kidnapping conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Alvarado carjacked Abel Patrick Tarin in December 2023 before driving him onto Fort Bliss desert property and fatally shooting him in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun.

The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division conducted a crime scene investigation Dec. 13, 2023, and recovered Tarin’s body. Two days later, an autopsy identified him as Tarin, who had previously been reported missing by the Las Cruces Police Department and the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office.

Tarin’s vehicle was later found in El Paso after it had been towed and impounded. A search of the vehicle found blood evidence, a gunshot hole inside the vehicle and several fingerprints belonging to Alvarado, according to prosecutors.

Alvarado was arrested Dec. 22, 2023, and indicted Jan. 17, 2024. A federal jury convicted him Aug. 14, 2025.

The FBI, Army CID, El Paso Police Department and Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mallory Rasmussen, Lori Hughes and Patricia Acosta prosecuted the case.