A debate over whose enchiladas were hotter ended with one cousin dead and the other charged with murder

What began as a family meal of green enchiladas ended with police finding a 25-year-old man bleeding on a walkway between apartment buildings. Investigators in Albuquerque say the argument that led there was over something almost absurdly small: whose plate was actually hotter.

The moment the night turned

According to police, Nathaniel Cavazos was walking away when his cousin allegedly pulled out a handgun, shouted, “We’re family! We’re family! How could you do this to me?” and fired three or four times.

Investigators say Cavazos was about 10 feet away and not holding a weapon when the shots were fired. He was struck in the back, and police later found him unresponsive in a pool of blood on a walkway between apartment buildings at an Albuquerque apartment complex.

Officers had responded to a shooting shortly before 11 p.m. Cavazos died from his injuries, and court documents say Ervin Joaquin Gutierrez, 22, was later charged with an open count of murder in the killing.

It started with groceries, alcohol and green enchiladas

The account laid out in the arrest warrant describes an evening that did not begin with violence. A cousin of both men, who told investigators he witnessed the shooting, said Gutierrez had arrived earlier that afternoon to visit.

The three of them later bought groceries, went back to the apartment and cooked green enchiladas while drinking alcohol, according to the affidavit. At some point, the conversation turned into an argument about the chile on the plates in front of them.

The witness said Gutierrez kept insisting the chile on his enchiladas was hotter than the chile on Cavazos’ plate, and challenged him to try some. Cavazos answered that they had all eaten the same enchiladas, so the chile should have been equally hot.

That disagreement did not die out. Police say the witness told them the argument carried on even after he suggested they take his dog for a walk.

In other words, the trigger for what followed was not an old feud described in the charging documents, but a dispute over the heat level of a meal the family had just cooked together.

A fistfight followed, then gunfire

The witness told police the verbal back and forth became physical when Cavazos punched Gutierrez. The two cousins fought, and the affidavit says Cavazos hit Gutierrez enough to leave him bleeding.

The fight then ended, according to the witness account, and Cavazos started to walk away. That is the point at which police say Gutierrez took out a handgun and confronted him.

The quoted line attributed to Gutierrez, “We’re family! We’re family! How could you do this to me?”, has become one of the most striking details in the case because it came at the exact moment the confrontation moved from a fistfight to a fatal shooting.

Investigators say the witness told them Gutierrez then fired three or four times. Cavazos was hit in the back. Gutierrez fled the scene, according to the affidavit.

Police later recovered a handgun that belonged to Cavazos at least 10 yards from his body. The court documents do not say he was holding it when he was shot. The witness specifically told authorities that Cavazos was not holding a weapon at the time gunfire broke out.

The messages police say came next

After the shooting, investigators say the witness showed them a Snapchat message in which Gutierrez allegedly claimed Cavazos had threatened his life.

The message cited by police included two lines. One was a question: “Is he really dead?” The other was an explanation investigators say Gutierrez wrote himself: “I did not want to kill him but i didn’t want him to kill me.”

Those messages sit alongside the witness statement at the center of the case. On one side is the account that the two men had been drinking, arguing and fighting over enchiladas before Cavazos walked away. On the other is Gutierrez’s alleged message claiming he feared for his life.

The charging documents made public in the case, however, say the witness described Cavazos as unarmed when the shots were fired and standing about 10 feet away from Gutierrez.

Where the case stands

Gutierrez was arrested by Albuquerque police Friday evening and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center shortly after midnight Saturday, according to jail records cited in the case coverage. He is being held on an open count of murder.

Cavazos was 25. Gutierrez is 22. Both men were cousins, and the key witness in the affidavit is also described as a cousin of the two.

The facts released so far leave behind a grim contrast. The evening described in the warrant began with a visit, groceries, cooking and drinks at an apartment complex. It ended with officers arriving just before 11 p.m. to find Cavazos lying in blood on a walkway between buildings.

The detail that has drawn the most attention is the argument itself, a dispute over whether one plate of green enchiladas was spicier than another. But the documents also show how police say the situation escalated step by step: a challenge over chile, an argument that kept going, a suggestion to take the dog for a walk, a punch, a fight, and then gunfire.

Gutierrez now faces the murder charge as the case moves through the court process in New Mexico.