Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press
ahedden@elritomedia.com

A fight outside the Artesia Public Safety Complex on Oct. 13, 2023, led to the fatal shooting of 42-year-old Mark Rommel, and the man charged with first-degree murder in Rommel’s death went on trial Tuesday, June 3, at the Eddy County Courthouse in Carlsbad.

The trial of Acadio Lucero, 24, before District Judge David Finger began with opening statements from the defense and prosecution. If convicted, Lucero could face life in prison.

The series of events resulting in Lucero’s death began when Lucero and his girlfriend Jahnika Guajardo went to the Public Safety Complex to pick up her infant child from Rommel, Guajardo’s ex-boyfriend and the child’s father.

A conflict between the parties erupted and Lucero shot Rommel three times, according to police. During the incident, Lucero was shot and wounded by Artesia police Sgt. Christopher Gallegos. Lucero was arrested three weeks later and charged with first-degree murder.

Here’s what happened on the first day of Lucero’s murder trial.

Fight stemmed from ‘custody exchange’

During her opening arguments, prosecutor Ariane Gonzales said Lucero had enough time to fully consider the consequences of his actions. She said the defendant walked to his truck during the argument, retrieved a gun, loaded it, then turned and fired 12 times at Rommel while walking toward the victim.

“The defendant reached into his vehicle, retrieved his firearm, loaded his firearm, turned around and immediately began firing at Mark Rommel,” Gonzales told the jury. “You will hear that Mark Rommel did not advance at any point.”

She also described how Gallegos was between meetings at the Public Safety Complex, which houses the Artesia Police Department, Fire Department and Artesia Municipal Court, when the shooting began.

The complex is where couples conduct “custody exchanges” of children, with certain zones set aside for such activity, Gonzales said, and Gallegos thought it odd when he noticed Lucero’s truck parked next to Rommel’s motorcycle in the zone without any children nearby.

She said Gallegos was proceeding toward the vehicles to inform the owners the parking spots were not for general parking when he saw Lucero shoot and kill Rommel. Gonzales said Gallegos will testify that Rommel had no weapons and did not follow Lucero to the truck.

“He (Gallegos) fired one shot at the defendant, hitting him in the back and ending his assault of Mark Rommel, who was gunned down at the public safety complex,” Gonzales said.

Defense draws doubt for first-degree

Defense attorney Raymond Conley sought to cast doubt on the police investigation and questioned whether the incident rose to the level of first-degree murder. He suggested that Rommel and Lucero were fighting at the time of the shooting, and that Lucero intended to “extricate” himself from the conflict.

“There were threats being made. Mr. Lucero attempts to extricate himself from that situation,” Conley said. “It’s not as simple as they were standing in place, my client gets his gun and shoots the guy. Who was the aggressor? That’s going to be the issue of this trial.”

Conley was also critical of police who investigated the incident and their alleged insistence during Lucero’s police interview that they had watched video of the shooting to justify the charge.

He said Lucero encouraged police during the interview to watch the video themselves to prove his side of the story, that he acted in self-defense, but that due to a “technical difficulty” no footage of the shooting was ever produced.

“Probably that will be framed as a law enforcement tactic. They will not tell the truth to get something out of someone,” Conley said. “Ultimately, at the end of the day the question is, is this first-degree murder?”

Heather Jarrell, chief medical examiner at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, detailed the autopsy of Rommel’s body and three gunshot wounds to his head, arm and shoulder.

Photos of Rommel’s body and his wounds were projected for the jury. Jarrell said the gunshot wound to the back of Rommel’s head was likely what killed him.

“It’s hard to say because people do survive gunshots to the head, but it’s usually fatal,” she said.

Additional testimony was given by law enforcement officers who responded to the scene and field investigators who processed the body and evidence.

Who else is on the witness list?

Several more officers with the Artesia Police Department, Artesia Fire Department and New Mexico State Police remained on the witness list, along with Matthew Bustamante, a firearms expert with the Santa Fe Forensic Laboratory.

Gallegos, the Artesia police sergeant who shot Lucero, was also on the list along with Guajardo and other witnesses to the incident

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.