Judge orders release of mother of 2-year-old boy fatally shot Sunday

The shooting death of a 2-year-old boy in an Albuquerque apartment appears accidental, a judge said Thursday, shortly before he ordered the release of the child’s mother and three others who were in the residence at the time.

“From everything presented to me, it does appear that this was an accident,” 2nd Judicial District Judge Bruce Fox said at a detention hearing for the boy’s mother, 20-year-old Amillia Garcia.

Fox also rejected a prosecutor’s motion to hold Garcia in custody pending trial on charges of child abuse resulting in death and tampering with evidence.

A prosecutor said Thursday that the investigation suggests that the boy’s gunshot wound was self-inflicted.

“Unfortunately, the little boy was the one handling the firearm when it went off and killed him,” Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch told the judge. “There is no evidence that anybody shot him purposefully.”

But Brandenburg-Koch asked the judge to keep all four defendants in custody while awaiting trial because their actions after the shooting showed an attempt to conceal crimes.

Fox said he saw no evidence that Garcia’s release from the Metropolitan Detention Center poses a risk to the community.

“There’s no indication (Garcia) has any kind of a criminal history,” he said. “She wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol and she wasn’t involved in any criminal activity.”

Fox also ordered the release of Angel C. Morales, 22, and Angelica Lucero, 24, who lived in the apartment in the 1900 block of Buena Vista SE where the boy was fatally shot.

A third co-defendant, Angel Tyrese Cordova, 25, will remain in custody for violating his probation from a previous case.

Investigators found that Morales left the apartment with at least two firearms before police arrived but later brought the weapons back and turned them over to police.

Brandenburg-Koch told the judge during Garcia’s detention hearing that Garcia also has a 1-year-old son who was not injured.

Fox said that the living arrangements of Garcia’s surviving son will be decided by the state Children, Youth and Families Department.

Garcia had been living for about two weeks in an apartment leased by Cordova and Lucero, the prosecutor said. Morales, Lucero’s boyfriend, also was in the apartment at the time.

Albuquerque police arrived at the apartment at about 4 p.m. Sunday and saw Lucero approach them carrying the boy, who had a gunshot wound to his chest, according to a criminal complaint filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.

Garcia told police that she had gone downstairs at about noon, followed by her 2-year-old son, the complaint said. Garcia then went back upstairs, but the boy remained downstairs.

About five minutes later, Garcia heard a gunshot and ran downstairs, she told detectives. She found the boy lying face up on the floor and beside him was a handgun with an extended magazine, she said.

Garcia told police that she had recently obtained a handgun for her protection.

“She is frequently in domestic disputes with her father, which prompted her to buy the gun,” the complaint said.

Brandenberg-Koch said after the hearing that Garcia had experienced a long history of domestic violence, which led to her placement in foster care in her mid-teens.

Garcia’s attorney, Thomas Clark, argued that the shooting was unintentional and that no reason exists to keep her in jail pending trial.

“This is a tragic accident,” Clark told the judge. “This wasn’t intentional. It was negligence.” Clark argued that the handgun was secured in a zippered bag.

Garcia has no criminal history and “by all accounts is a wonderful mother” and “has done everything she can despite a very, very tough upbringing,” Clark said.

“There’s no reason to believe that my client is a danger to anyone else,” he said. “She should not be rotting in jail while this is playing out.”