A Pima County jury has found Max Montijo LaMadrid not guilty of first degree murder, second degree murder and manslaughter, in the shooting death of 16 year old Tanee Natividad.
Natividad was a Palo Verde High School student, when she was shot in the head and killed in November 2001 while driving away from an eastside Jack-In-The-Box where a fight and shooting had occurred.
LaMadrid’s first two trials ended with hung juries.
In his second trial his defense attorney Dan Cooper told the jury that the shooting was an accident had occurred during a fight between two groups of people fighting outside of Jack in the Box when Natividad and her friend Torrence Gooden drove up.
According to a KOLD report in March, Max LaMadrid was friends with one of the people involved in that fight. He pulled out his handgun and also fired shots to get back at a man who shot his friend.
Natividad’s family was “heart-broken” by the verdict and unable to make a comment on Friday.