The man who shot and killed a rocket scientist in front of a Southeast Albuquerque home three years ago was sentenced on Monday to serve 11 years in prison — 18 years total with seven suspended — followed by five years of supervised probation and two years of parole.
Vigil pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm enhancement.
The 2021 Father’s Day murder of Karl Jürisson “sucked the air out of the room” for his family and terrorized the Albuquerque community for years until an arrest was made in January 2023.
Felix Vigil, 21, was sentenced by Second Judicial District Judge Jennifer Wernersbach who said Jürisson’s murder scared a lot of people about what is possible in Albuquerque because it was done in broad daylight and was so random and violent.
“An innocent person trying to guard his property does not deserve to be gunned down like that and so I will tell you that I likely would have given you more time if that was in my power,” she said. “I appreciate that you’ve worked out a plea and will honor that, but it really was an impactful crime to all of us,” she said.
In an email to City Desk Abq, Jürisson’s daughter Ana said she wanted to thank the law enforcement officers and the district attorneys who worked on her father’s case.
“Nothing brings him back, but we are satisfied with the outcome and glad that this is resolved. I want my dad to be remembered, not for how he died, but for the wonderful person he was to all who love him,” she said.
She said her cousin Karen Tate Fries wrote that since Jürisson’s murder, their family shares a sense of emptiness, and she agrees.
“There is nothing to celebrate. Unfortunately, this plea hearing is not the end. Our lives are forever intertwined with Mr. Vigil…we hope he keeps his promise to work on himself,” Tate Fries said.
During the hearing, Vigil apologized to the family for his actions.
The murder
Charging documents state that on June 20, 2021, Vigil and his friend John Kasi — who were both 18 at the time — were driving around the Southeast part of Albuquerque in a borrowed car. One of them had to use the restroom so they stopped near the intersection of Vassar SE near Garfield SE.
Jürisson, 64, was at his partner’s house checking on things while she was out of town. He was sitting in his car parked in the driveway when he spotted the two men. A witness told police that they saw Vigil jump out of his car with a gun and point it at Jürisson. The witness told police that they heard two shots and saw Jürisson fall to the ground. Vigil then ran to the car he was driving in and fled from the scene.
No arrests were made in this case until January 2023.
A rocket scientist
Hailing from Minnesota, Jürisson moved to New Mexico after graduating from the University of Minnesota with undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics. The rocket scientist worked on space environment projects, space plasma cells and helped develop payload adaptors. He won six awards for successful missile target launches and worked on the James Webb Space Telescope.
Jürisson lived a full life outside of work too. He was a son, brother and father who loved music, the outdoors, being silly, and his partner Julia Clark Downs, according to family members. Clark Downs was an assistant district attorney for Taos County at the time of her death in a car crash
Keep breathing, just keep breathing
Jürisson’s murder left a gaping hole in the lives of those who loved him. His daughter, a childhood cancer survivor, told the court Monday that her dad was the best dad and wholeheartedly kind.
“I feel like I’ve been scripting what I would say at a sentencing hearing every day since June 20, 2021, but now that it’s actually really happened, you will find that my mind is both blank and overflowing,” said his daughter Ana Romero Jürisson.
She described how the trauma of losing her father has affected her life, stating that it feels like she has a traumatic brain injury.
“The effect on memory, the ability to concentrate, anxiety and persistent often overwhelming fatigue when I just can’t bear the weight and reality of it,” she said. “Normal caution often turns to sad and overwhelming fear, starting to panic when my husband is late coming home, or my mom doesn’t text me back right away.”
Ana Jürisson told the court that her father didn’t always know what to do, but he always made her laugh.
Since her father’s murder, Ana Jürisson said the unthinkable now seems likely.
Jürisson’s 101-year-old mother Norma said the violent murder of her son is still overwhelming and she misses him to this day.
“All I can do is just keep breathing,” she said.
She said her son was silly, told the best jokes, and became a rocket scientist even though he was dyslexic. She couldn’t fathom that he died in such a violent way.
“He would come to help take care of me so my daughters could get a break, and I loved it when he would tuck me into bed each night, give me a kiss on the forehead and say, ‘I love you,’” she said. “All the men in my life are dead.”
Karen Jürisson described a brother who would place her in wrestling holds after yelling “take down” when she walked into the living room and would refuse to let her go if she didn’t answer math questions correctly.
“There’s no bottom line to the intense sadness I feel from this loss. Karl’s untimely death was followed by months of daily calls, sometimes multiple calls from his inconsolable partner. The emotional worry for her was intense, slowing my ability to work on my own needs,” she said.
Months after Jürisson’s death, Clark Downs was killed in a freak car accident in Taos.
Jürisson’s niece Karen Tate Fries told the court that her uncle’s death wasn’t the first death their family has had to gun violence, but the third.
She said her uncle was the connector of generations of family and his murder has caused her a lot of anxiety.
“My heart isn’t beating because my family is broken. I can’t hold back that black hole inside of me anymore. It’s collapsing and pulling everything around it into the phone ringing, the air leaving the room. I hear my mother’s voice, just keep breathing. Just keep breathing, but it sounds like, ‘Karl’s been shot, he’s dead. Karl’s been shot, he’s dead,” she said.
The day Vigil murdered her uncle, Tate Fries said he sucked the air out of the room.
“And I’m still waiting for it to come back,” she said.