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Thursday, May 26, 2011
Roswell Teen's Murder Trial Slated July 26 Two People Shot To Death April 16
By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer
A 14-year-old Roswell boy is scheduled to go to trial July 26 on murder and other charges stemming from a violent incident that left two people fatally shot on a residential street last month, officials said Wednesday.
For nearly a month and a half after the April 16 incident, Roswell police and city officials withheld the name of the suspect, Frank Montoya Jr., saying they did not have to release it because he is a juvenile.
Arrest records are public, and there is no law that differentiates between juvenile and adult suspects, according to Sarah Welsh, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.
On Wednesday — after numerous New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act requests — Roswell City Attorney Barbara Patterson provided the Journal a copy of the petition for youthful offender charging Montoya with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by someone younger than 19.
Patterson had promised the Journal a copy of the document May 9, but said Wednesday it had "slipped (her) mind" in the 16 days since.
Montoya was being held at the Chaves County Juvenile Detention Center in Roswell as of late Wednesday, said Donald F. Moore Jr., assistant Children's Court attorney for the local District Attorney's Office.
Moore said the case is set for a jury trial in state District Judge Freddie Romero's courtroom July 26.
Initial reports from the Roswell Police Department indicated Montoya had been charged in the deaths of 31-year-old Rodney Sanchez and 19-year-old Brandon Lucero.
But the petition charging Montoya listed the murder charge as connected to Sanchez's death and the battery charge because Montoya allegedly struck Jose Jimenez with a handgun.
Roswell Police Sgt. Erik Hiatt said Wednesday authorities believe Sanchez fatally shot Lucero, who was Montoya's brother, and Montoya fired a deadly shot at Sanchez.
Hiatt would not say how Jimenez was involved or what prompted the violence in a residential area near the old Air Force Base in Roswell.
"We're fairly clear, and we have a really good idea of what happened, but we can't prove it yet," he said. "I can't put out speculation, and it all happened within milliseconds."
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