New Mexico
Homicide victim was 78-year-old woman
Virginia Montoya, 78, and her husband, Adan Lucero, 84, were sitting in their home Wednesday night in the 1300 block of Traver Street. They were watching television. The doorbell rang. Montoya got up to answer it.
“JR, is that you?” she can be heard telling a man dressed in a light gray hoody with a dark mask over his face. “Leave!”
Moments later, Lucero tells police, he heard a loud pop. “Virginia sat down on the love seat by the door and told (her husband) she had been shot,” court records show.
JR, police believe, was Dan Lucero, the grandson of Adan Lucero. His mother told police “JR has mental health issues.” She also said her son is using meth. And he “does not care for Virginia.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why Dan Lucero allegedly did not care for Montoya, but authorities arrested him early Thursday morning and charged him with first-degree murder after Montoya died from the single gunshot to the right side of her chest.
Lucero, 36, was being held in the Curry County Detention Center this weekend without bond.
Police responded to the scene just before 7 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a 911 call reporting the shooting.
There they found Montoya lying on a love seat. She ceased breathing while being treated by first responders and was pronounced dead at the Clovis hospital.
Home security video from the victim’s residence and others in the neighborhood captured the shooting and gave police evidence a white truck like the one Dan Lucero drives was seen leaving the neighborhood at a high rate of speed.
Adan Lucero told police Dan Lucero was supposed to come to the house earlier in the day, but Adan Lucero had not seen him.
Police located Dan Lucero and his mother at a home in the 4100 block of Cottonwood Drive on Wednesday night. Both were taken to police headquarters, where Lucero declined to answer questions, court records show.
Dan Lucero’s mother said her son had come home about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and started a load of laundry. He told her something was wrong with his truck, so he had parked it at a shop in the 700 block of Pioneer, where police located it, along with evidence they believe ties Dan Lucero to the shooting.
The suspect was initially held on an undisclosed probation violation and jailed early Thursday morning. Probation officers had been to his home on Wednesday afternoon where he was “distracted, somewhat upset and told them his grandfather (Abe Sena) had just died,” court records show.
Online court records show criminal allegations – for violent crimes and multiple drug charges — against Dan Lucero began in 2010. Prior to Wednesday’s shooting, he was most recently charged with battery against a household member about a year ago. He pleaded no contest to that charge, was sentenced to 364 days in jail, and was released in July.
Montoya’s slaying marked Clovis’ fourth homicide this year. Two women were killed in Ned Houk Park in May and a teenager was shot to death outside the Clovis Apartments early last month.
The Ned Houk suspect is in custody in Albuquerque where he faces multiple federal charges. The suspect in the September slaying, Giovanni Brown-Johnson, 18, remained at large this week, police said.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) — The Social Security Office released the most popular baby names for 2025 on Thursday. And here in New Mexico, we saw some familiar names top the charts once again.
Coming in at No. 1 for girls is Mia, and as for the boys, Noah ranks No. 1. That’s no change from 2024 when Mia and Noah also led the pack, both coming in at No 1. For 2025, there were a total of 66 babies named Mia and 115 babies named Noah, while in 2024, there were 81 Mias and 105 Noahs.
What do the names mean? Online sources list a few different interpretations for Mia, but one common association is with the Italian word “mia,” which means “mine.” As for Noah, the name is most commonly associated with the prominent bible figure. It’s thought to mean “rest,” or “comfort.”
Here’s a look at some of the other top baby names in New Mexico for 2025.
- Girls:
- Olivia (65 total)
- Sophia (65 total)
- Sofia (60 total)
- Camila (59 total)
- Eliana (57 total)
- Isabella (56 total)
- Amelia (53 total)
- Aria (45 total)
- Aurora (45 total)
- Boys:
- Liam (109 total)
- Mateo (99 total)
- Elijah (76 total)
- Santiago (70 total)
- Sebastian (69 total)
- Ezra (67 total)
- Elias (66 total)
- Ezekiel (66 total)
- Levi (69 total)
Nationally, Olivia and Liam are the most popular baby names, and have been for the past seven years, according to the Social Security Administration. As for the fastest-rising names, Klarity jumped nearly 1,400 spots on the girls’ list, and Kasai jumped 1,108 for boy names.
Other names rising in popularity for boys include Atlas, Adriel, Emiliano, Arthur, and Archer. On the girls’ list, Ailany, Sienna, Amara, and Georgia are becoming more popular.
You can find the full list by state online.
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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — An ‘imposter nurse’ in Las Cruces is facing 34 charges after nearly causing the death of a patient and illegally giving medications to patients under 18 years old.
A Doña Ana County grand jury indicted Margarita Gonzalez. She is accused of assuming the identities of nurses in Texas to get hired at four nursing facilities in Las Cruces:
- Village at Northrise
- Las Cruces Wellness and Rehabilitation
- Peak Behavioral Health
- Matrix Home Care
The New Mexico Department of Justice’s Medicaid Fraud and Elder Abuse Bureau investigated and discovered instances where Gonzalez illegally gave injections and dispensed prescriptions, including narcotics to eight inpatient residents under 18 years old.
An investigation also found Gonzalez was also about to allegedly give “an incorrect insulin dose” to a patient that they claim could’ve killed the patient if another nurse hadn’t caught the error.
Several facilities fired Gonzalez over patient safety concerns and an observed lack of knowledge.
“Impersonating a healthcare provider is a reckless and selfish crime that subjects those most vulnerable to risk of serious injury or death,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said. “I will not tolerate those who risk the safety of patients or cause danger and unnecessary confusion within the healthcare system. These charges should keep anyone attempting to pose as a healthcare provider on notice: we will find you, and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law to protect New Mexicans.”
Gonzalez’s charges include identity theft, nursing without a license, abuse of a resident, distribution of controlled substances to a minor and fraud totaling over $25,000.
If convicted on all counts, Gonzalez could face up to 100 years in prison.
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