Witness to Teresa Gomez's shooting by former Las Cruces officer testifies in trial

LAS CRUCES — Jesus Garcia shrank from the video screen in front of him as prosecutors played police body camera footage from the final minutes before his friend was killed.

“It’s because she’s no longer here,” he explained in a voice so soft that state District Judge Richard Jacquez frequently reminded him to speak up so the jury could hear his testimony.

It was the second day of former Las Cruces police officer Felipe Hernandez’s trial on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting of Teresa Gomez, 45, in 2023. Hernandez, 45, wore a navy blue suit and thin eyeglasses, occasionally whispering to his defense team.

Garcia testified about an encounter with Hernandez early in the morning on Oct. 3, 2023, when Gomez and Garcia were seated in her car. He said he and Gomez had visited a friend at a public housing complex on Burley Court in Las Cruces and Gomez was looking for her car keys, preparing to give him a ride to his mother’s house, when Hernandez shined his flashlight into the car and asked Gomez to step outside.

For the next several minutes, the video shows Hernandez growing frustrated as he questions Gomez and identifies Garcia from previous encounters. Garcia admitted that he had been homeless at the time, was cited for trespassing previously and had been ordered by a municipal court judge not to return to the property.

Even so, he was friends with a few residents there and stored some of his belongings in a shed on the property, he stated under oath.

In the video, Hernandez asserts that Gomez and Garcia were trespassing and claims visits to residents of the complex are limited to certain hours of the day, which was contradicted by witnesses Tuesday who said no such limits are mandated in the tenants’ rules and regulations. Hernandez raises his voice and curses frequently as he questions Gomez, threatening to shoot her with a Taser, to have her car towed and to make her life “a living hell.”

Gomez, glowing an eerie green in the dim lighting on video, asks Hernandez, “Why are you talking to me like that?”

After he recognizes Garcia and begins yelling at him, Garcia discloses that he has a disassembled paintball gun on his person, and appears to lay out the pieces as he talks to the officer. In court, Garcia said he had warrants for his arrest at the time, and feared going to jail or being shot by the officer.

The video records Hernandez later instructing Gomez to return to her car. She then backs her car out of its parking spot and begins to drive away. Hernandez steps back, avoiding the path of the open driver’s side door, and fires on the car.

Garcia did not opine on whether Gomez believed she was free to leave. He said that she did not drive quickly, which appeared to be corroborated by testimony from crime scene investigator Clint Norris of the New Mexico State Police. Norris said marks left in the gravel parking lot did not suggest Gomez had pulled off at high speed.

Dr. Lauren Dvorscak of the Office of the Medical Investigator testified that Gomez was killed by a bullet that entered her left side through her back, damaging ribs, vertebrae and both lungs.

The city of Las Cruces settled a civil lawsuit brought by Gomez’s family for $20 million in 2024.

While the jury was on recess, defense attorney Jeff Lahann and prosecutor Tomas Medina sparred over whether the defense could question Dvorscak about a toxicology report showing methamphetamine in Gomez’s body. Dvorscak said she was unable to testify about how the drug might have influenced her behavior and said it was not relevant to her investigation into Gomez’s cause of death.

Ultimately, Jacquez said some questions about the toxicology report, as a public record, were admissible.

LCPD Detective Curtis Yarnell testified that when speaking to investigators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Hernandez reported minor injuries, including a “scuff” on his left forearm and a pen mark on his right-side inner elbow. Although Yarnell recalled him mentioning an injury to his ankle or knee, none was documented.

Tuesday’s business concluded during Norris’ testimony about the crime scene investigation of the car’s path and the three rounds that struck Gomez’s vehicle, including the one believed to have hit Gomez.

Jacquez said he expected witness testimony to be completed by lunchtime Wednesday afternoon, suggesting the trial might conclude on its third day.