Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ALBUQUERQUE – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, announced that on Jan. 30, 2024, a federal jury returned two guilty verdicts against Walter Palmon Eddings, 40, of Albuquerque, after approximately two hours of deliberation. The jury convicted Eddings of two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Judge Kea W. Riggs presided.
A federal grand jury issued an indictment against Eddings on Feb. 24, 2022. According to evidence presented at trial and other publicly available court records, on Jan. 31, 2022, during a joint operation between the New Mexico State Police (NMSP) and the Albuquerque Police Department to apprehend a homicide suspect, a NMSP tactical team was surveilling the Ambassador Inn Hotel in Albuquerque. Prior to surveillance, the team was told that Eddings, who had recently been released from federal supervision, was known to frequent the Ambassador Inn, was a convicted felon, and may be armed and dangerous.
While conducting surveillance, several team members observed Eddings at the Ambassador Inn. Eventually, a team member observed Eddings follow another man, who was carrying a rifle in a soft case with the barrel sticking out, to the parking lot. The other man placed the rifle in the back seat of a vehicle. A short time later, a team member observed Eddings clean the same vehicle and reposition the rifle within the vehicle. Three individuals then entered the vehicle, including Eddings, and left the Ambassador Inn property. Officers followed the vehicle to a 7-Eleven gas station, where the team confronted Eddings and arrested him. At the time, Eddings was carrying a backpack with two stolen firearms inside.
Eddings will remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled. At sentencing, Eddings faces up to 20 years in prison. Eddings has numerous prior felony convictions including for armed robbery, kidnapping, unlawfully stealing firearms from a federal firearms licensee, breaking and entering, and larceny.
The FBI Violent Crime Task Force investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy Trembley and Patrick E. Cordova are prosecuting the case.
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