A jury found an Albuquerque man guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday for fatally shooting a stranger in 2019 as the two men were driving separate vehicles on Interstate 40 near the Big I.
The 2nd Judicial District Court jury also convicted Donald Duquette, 54, of shooting at or from a motor vehicle for firing multiple shots from his Chevrolet pickup. One of those shots struck 45-year-old Jose Ruben Diaz once in the head on July 15, 2019.
Duquette faces up to 16 years in prison at sentencing. Jurors could have convicted Duquette of first-degree murder, which has a minimum sentence of 30 years, but opted for the lesser charge. No sentencing hearing has been scheduled.
Deputy District Attorney Lawrence Hansen told jurors during closing arguments this week that Duquette was battling his own delusions when he fired a handgun at a man he didn’t know.
“It had nothing to do with Diaz,” Hansen said of Duquette’s decision to fire gunshots at Diaz. “It had to do with whatever was going on in (Duquette’s) head all day long.”
Diaz was unarmed at the time he was shot once in the head, Hanson told jurors Monday. Police found no weapons or spent cartridges in Diaz’s Ford Ranger pickup, he said.
Police found Diaz’s lifeless body slumped over the wheel of his work truck on the southbound off-ramp of I-40 at Interstate 25.
About 17 hours after Diaz’s body was found, Duquette showed up at New Mexico State Police headquarters and gave detectives what Hansen described as a “rambling” statement to detectives for more than two hours.
Duquette’s attorney, Raymond Maestas, told jurors that Duquette fired the gunshots in self defense after Diaz attempted to ram his Ford Ranger into Duquette’s vehicle.
“Mr. Duquette told police that Mr. Diaz was using his truck, or trying to use his truck, as a weapon,” Maestas told jurors Monday.
Duquette “did not mean to kill Mr. Diaz,” Maestas said. “He was protecting himself.”
A former paramedic, Duquette also voluntarily showed up at State Police headquarters and voluntarily made a statement to detectives after Diaz’s killing, Maestas told jurors.
“Mr. Duquette came in, gave his statement — came in voluntarily because it was the right thing to do,” Maestas said. “If he had never told the police anything, we wouldn’t know what happened. The prosecution wouldn’t know what happened.”
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Duquette told police he became paranoid after smoking methamphetamine and believed people were going to kidnap his friends and “sell them into slavery for heroin.”
Duquette and a female friend were driving separate vehicles to a hotel when he saw Diaz in a Ford Ranger and thought he was a kidnapper who was after his friend, the complaint said.
Duquette told police he fired at Diaz’s vehicle after he thought he saw flashes from a gun coming from the other vehicle, the complaint said.
