Man enters plea in his uncle's 2022 shooting death

A man pleaded guilty Tuesday in the 2022 shooting death of a relative at the family’s home in Southwest Albuquerque.

Domenic Mora, 20, pleaded guilty in 2nd Judicial District Court to second-degree murder in the Jan. 12, 2022, shooting death of his great-uncle, Daniel Trujillo.

Mora, who was 18 at the time of Trujillo’s killing, faces up to 13 years in prison. District Judge David Murphy has not scheduled a sentencing hearing.

Federal court records indicate that Mora may have obtained several firearms from a relative in the years prior to Trujillo’s killing.

Mora’s grandmother, Alberta Trujillo, pleaded guilty in August to a federal firearms charge for purchasing a firearm on behalf of another person, according to court records. Alberta Trujillo is the sister of Daniel Trujillo.

Mora initially was charged with first-degree murder in the killing.

Mora’s attorney, Kelly Golightley, said Tuesday that Mora had experienced drug overdoses, both the night before the killing and again shortly afterward, which played a role in Mora’s plea negotiations with prosecutors.

Golightley said she raised the issue of Mora’s mental state both at the time of the killing and when he waived his constitutional right not to speak to investigators.

Mora “was suffering ill effects from that at the time of his waiver, which would have made him incapable of properly being able to waive his Miranda rights,” she said.

Mora’s grandmother was sentenced in August by U.S. District Judge David Urias to two years of supervised release, federal court records show.

Alberta Trujillo’s attorney, Alexandra Jones, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

Golightley declined to discuss how Mora may have obtained the firearm used in the killing.

According to a federal search warrant affidavit, Alberta Trujillo told federal agents that she had purchased several guns for Mora since 2019, when he was 16, after he ordered them online.

The federal investigation began in the days just after Daniel Trujillo’s killing.

According to the affidavit, an employee of BMC Tactical told the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that Alberta Trujillo may have bought guns for a “young, male family member who accompanies her to the store.”

Before his arrest, Mora had ordered a pistol in Alberta Trujillo’s name, the affidavit said. After Mora’s arrest, and while he was in custody, Trujillo planned to sell the gun to another buyer, it said.

In her plea agreement, Trujillo admitted making a false statement on a federal firearms transaction record in March 2022 saying she was the buyer of a 9mm pistol when her intention was to transfer ownership to another person.