
APD crime scene investigators and officers walk the scene of a homicide call near Lomas and Alcazar NE on Wednesday morning, where a passerby discovered the body of a dead man. (Roberto E. Rosales, Albuquerque Journal)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Police have identified the man found dead from an apparent gunshot wound on Lomas near Louisiana NE on Christmas morning as 39-year-old Christian Frescas.
No one has been arrested in the case.
Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said a passerby found Frescas near a car dealership parking lot around 9 a.m. on Dec. 25. His death is being investigated as a homicide and was the second of two in Albuquerque on Christmas Day.
Frescas made headlines in February 2016 when he was arrested and charged with starting a fire on state land after a spate of small fires were set in the Bosque over several weeks.
Frescas, who at that time listed his address as a local homeless shelter and was identified by a hospital bracelet on his arm, was found near Central and the Rio Grande standing next to a small fire, watching it, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. He told investigators he had started the fire with a lighter and had lit other recent fires in the area, as well.
That case was later dismissed because prosecutors didn’t meet court deadlines.
A misdemeanor case against Frescas around the same time was dismissed after a forensic psychologist found him not competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
Gallegos said he was told that Frescas was not homeless when he was killed.
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