ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Revenge and payback for a fight leads to a shooting and death on the University of New Mexico campus. On Thursday, the last suspect in the attack carried out on a New Mexico State University basketball player pled guilty.
Basketball player Mike Peake was armed and it led to the shooting that killed Brandon Travis in 2022. Thursday afternoon, Eli-sha Upshaw took a plea deal in front of Judge Brit Baca-Miller, having three other charges dropped.
The whole ordeal started in October of 2022 during the Rio Grande rivalry game in Las Cruces. A fight broke out during the game. Police bodycam footage shows Peake, an Aggie basketball player, and Travis, a UNM student, fighting.
Then on November 19, Travis, Upshaw, Jonathan Smith, and Mya Hill learned Peak was going to be in Albuquerque for a basketball game and planned to jump him as revenge for Travis getting beat up at the game. Hill would lure Pake to campus where the other three would jump him. But that’s not how it worked out.
Surveillance video shows three men approach Hill and Peake. Upshaw is carrying a bat and hits Peake with it. Peake runs away and Travis follows and fires a shot at him.
Peake fires several rounds as he continues to run away, hitting Travis, who returns fire, which hits and injures Peake. Travis died at the scene.
Upshaw is facing up to four-and-a-half years behind bars. Peake was not charged. Smith pled guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and tampering with evidence. He’s facing up to three years behind bars.
Mya Hill was only 17 during the shooting. She pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and conspiracy charges in juvenile court and was sentenced to three years of probation.
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