Murder suspect walks twice after problems with cases
Jesse Benito Luna’s criminal record sprawls across several pages, over several years and several jurisdictions from here to Fulton County, Ga.
It includes violent charges like aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment, most of those committed with the aid of a gun.
On May 3, 2014, he had several outstanding warrants — and, apparently, a gun — when, authorities say, he burst into a house on Gatewood SW in Bernalillo County’s South Valley and started shooting at the three occupants inside.
He kept shooting until he ran out of ammo.
Killed that night was Manuel Perea, 44. A criminal complaint lists no motive for the shooting.
News accounts at the time were scant, even though some folks might have been interested in knowing that an apparently armed and dangerous man was on the loose in their midst.
Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies found him four days later, hiding in a friend’s shed near Old Town. Days after that, he was indicted on firstdegree murder and other
charges. But Luna, 39, was a hard one to put away.
In August 2015, 15 months after the homicide, Bernalillo County prosecutors dropped the charges against Luna because the two other occupants in the home who had been luckier than Perea that night could not be located, the investigating officer was on military leave and state District Judge Jacqueline Flores refused to approve a continuance.
Last March, 22 months after the homicide, prosecutors tried again, taking the case before a grand jury and obtaining an indictment on similar charges as before, including first-degree murder.
But in November, those charges were also dismissed, this time by state District Judge Benjamin Chavez, who found that the prosecutor had failed to provide defense attorney Liane Kerr with “essential initial disclosures.” Luna was a free man.
So what happened? Had someone made a mistake? Were the tighter deadlines to push felony cases through Bernalillo County’s clogged justice system — the so-called case management order, or CMO, imposed in February 2015 by the state Supreme Court — to blame?
Kerr doesn’t think so. The case, she said, was just awful.
“At the outset, witnesses made themselves unavailable and repeatedly changed their statements,” she said. “Many of the ‘fact’ witnesses faced multiple charges in other cases.”
Kerr had filed a motion to exclude those witnesses, but the motion went unanswered.
The same prosecutor prosecuted both murder cases against Luna as well as the case against a woman accused of harboring Luna in the shed. That case was also dismissed because pretrial interviews were not completed in time, court documents say.
That prosecutor is no longer with the District Attorney’s Office, said Adolfo Mendez II, chief of policy and planning for the office.
Mendez would not speculate as to what had gone wrong. It’s just too soon to know, he said — his boss, District Attorney Raúl Torrez, has been in office for less than two weeks, taking over the reins from longtime DA Kari Brandenburg, who chose not to run for re-election.
Luna may not be off the murder hook forever. Both cases were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the charges can be refiled.
“I have instructed my administration to initiate a comprehensive evaluation of all of the cases that I inherited when I took office,” Torrez said in a statement. “The Jesse Luna case has been identified as a high priority and is currently under review by a supervisor in the violent crimes division. My office is committed to prosecuting any of the viable cases that I inherited.”
Murder cases rarely come giftwrapped with perfect witnesses and exacting DNA. Justice is messy work. It’s hard. But it’s crucial. Luna’s case, 32 months after the homicide, should not be forgotten.
Luna, meanwhile, has continued to add to his voluminous rap sheet. Last February, he was arrested in Santa Fe County on charges of auto burglary and battery. While that case was pending, he was arrested in Bernalillo County on charges of kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated battery, assault and auto theft.
That landed him at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he remains today. We shall see how long that lasts. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 8233603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www. abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.