Plea Deal Resolves Remaining Charges in Killings of Albuquerque Muslim Men

The prosecution of a New Mexico man charged in a string of killings that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim community moved toward a conclusion on Tuesday, even as questions about his motive appeared likely to remain unanswered.

Accused of murdering three men in 2022, the man, Muhammad Syed, was convicted of first-degree murder earlier this year in one of the killings, and on Tuesday morning in an Albuquerque courtroom, he pleaded no contest to second-degree murder charges in the other two deaths.

The three victims were all Muslims, and initially, the killings were feared to be anti-Muslim. But Mr. Syed is also Muslim, and his arrest led to speculation that the killings might have been connected to a sectarian dispute between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Neither his trial earlier this year nor the plea agreement on Tuesday has shed light on what the motive was. By pleading no contest, Mr. Syed chose to forgo another trial, while neither admitting nor denying guilt.

The first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. The plea agreement on Tuesday will not add to his prison term because the sentences for the second-degree murder convictions will run concurrently with the first sentence.

Sam Bregman, the district attorney of Bernalillo County, for which Albuquerque is the county seat, said, “I’m confident he will never walk out of prison.”

The killings, which claimed the lives of three Muslim men over the span of 10 days in the summer of 2022, left Albuquerque’s Muslim community in fear. In the days that followed, some fled the city, while others left their night-shift jobs and stayed indoors. The Police Department also increased its presence around places where Muslim residents, numbering no more than 10,000 in a city of over half a million at that time, tended to gather.

Mr. Syed, who had emigrated from Afghanistan in 2016 and made a living as a truck driver, was arrested in August 2022. Before the killings, he had been charged in a series of assaults against his wife, his son and his daughter’s boyfriend. But prosecutors dismissed the charges, saying the victims did not want to pursue the charges.

In March, Mr. Syed was found guilty of murdering one of the three men, Aftab Hussein, a 41-year-old Afghan who worked at a well-known Albuquerque cafe. During the trial, prosecutors did not present a motive, and Mr. Syed declined to testify. The jury reached a guilty verdict in less than two hours.

Mr. Syed was set to go on trial last week in the death of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. But the proceedings were canceled as lawyers for the state and Mr. Syed began negotiating a plea.

The agreement resolves the charges against Mr. Syed in the deaths of Mr. Hussain, a 27-year-old city planner who had served as the president of the University of New Mexico’s graduate student association, and Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old who had recently started his own trucking business after becoming a U.S. citizen just weeks before his death.

Months before the 2022 killings, another Muslim man was killed in Albuquerque. The police considered Mr. Syed the prime suspect in that killing as well, but no one has been charged in that man’s death. .

Megan Mitsunaga, a lawyer for Mr. Syed, described the outcome of the prosecution as a “reasonable compromise” to avoid the additional trials.

“He’s at peace with it,” she said of her client.

The sentencing is expected to be held within the next month or two, and the victims’ families will have the opportunity to address the court at that time.