Jury convicts man of second-degree murder in 2023 shooting in NE Albuquerque

A jury convicted a man in the 2023 shooting death of 44-year-old Richard Cabell but rejected the most serious charge of first-degree murder sought by prosecutors.

Jurors convicted Dorian McCuller, 45, of second-degree murder in Cabell’s killing outside a Northeast Albuquerque apartment complex.

The conviction followed a weeklong trial in 2nd Judicial District Court before Judge Matthew Chavez. No sentencing hearing has been scheduled.

McCuller’s attorney said in closing arguments that McCuller feared for his life and shot Cabell in self-defense after a confrontation between the two men. Cabell punched McCuller during the argument, causing McCuller to black out, defense attorney Deidre Ewing told jurors.

“He’d been led to believe that Mr. Cabell had a gun,” Ewing said Friday in closing arguments. “He had already been subject to violence at the hands of Mr. Cabell and he was sure he was going to be shot. Mr. McCuller was terrified for his life.”

Prosecutors argued that McCuller had several opportunities to walk away from the confrontation after McCuller was struck in the face.

“Richard (Cabell) had walked away from the defendant,” Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Needhammer told jurors. “There was time to cool off. There was time to make a different choice.”

Needhammer cited a witness who testified this week that Cabell was “cowering in fear” in the moments before he was shot.

“To shoot someone who’s afraid of you is not what a reasonable person would do,” Needhammer said in closing arguments. “The defendant got punched. But again, shooting someone for that is not reasonable.”

Albuquerque police responded around 4 p.m. on June 20, 2023, to a shooting at the Copper Ridge Apartments, near Tramway and Copper NE, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Officers found Cabell shot to death in a roadway entering the complex.

Within days of Cabell’s death, McCuller showed up to a behavioral health hospital in Temple, Texas, saying he “may have hurt someone in Albuquerque,” according to court records.

McCuller told a detective that he and Cabell fought over a woman at the apartment and Cabell punched him in the face, according to the complaint. McCuller said he got “extremely angry” and “blacked out.”