BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. (TCN) — A 45-year-old woman has been found guilty for her role in the torture and beating death of a man in 2024, described by authorities as “brutal.”
According to Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, Virginia Nicasio was involved in a drug operation. She believed the victim, Antonio Taylor, had stolen from her. Nicasio had her co-defendant, Preston Ball, kidnap Taylor before beating him and torturing him on Nov. 30, 2024.
According to Nicasio’s defense attorneys, Nicasio offered Ball a place to stay without knowing he had killed Taylor, Yahoo! News reports.
At trial, Deputy District Attorney Christine Jablonsky said Taylor was tied to a shed in a chair and killed on Nicasio’s orders, adding, “They finished him off with a broom, with a shovel, with a hammer, until he died. … This shed ends up having blood on almost every surface of it,” Yahoo! News reports.
“Virginia Nicasio gave orders to her henchmen,” she said. “Her enforcer carried out her orders.”
Ball was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2025 in connection with Taylor’s death and the death of another man two days later. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in both cases, per Yahoo! News.
A third co-defendant, Matthew Barraza, was also charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy in connection with Taylor’s death. A fourth co-defendant, 56-year-old George Mariscal, was sentenced in May to four years in prison after pleading guilty to charges connected with the disposal of Taylor’s body.
Nicasio was convicted of first-degree murder on Sept. 30, according to the DA. She faces up to 30 years in prison when sentenced. “Our prosecutors are relentless and never give up, especially in a brutal case like this one,” Bregman said.
