I-40 murder suspect faces suit in earlier slaying
Neighbor slain, wife wounded in shooting outside rental home
An Albuquerque man accused of fatally shooting a driver on the interstate this month is now facing a wrongful death lawsuit in connection with an April shooting that left a man dead and his wife injured.
The civil suit alleges a member of 51-year-old Donald Duquette’s motorcycle club fatally shot Jason Brown, 38, and injured Nicole SalazarBrown on April 21 during a neighbor dispute outside the home Duquette was renting, according to a complaint filed in state District Court last week.
The lawsuit does not identify the shooter. Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the homicide investigation is “nearing completion” and will be forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office for review and prosecution.
Duquette is already jailed on a charge of murder and shooting at or from a motor vehicle in the July 15 killing of Jose “Ruben” Diaz, 45. Police say Duquette was high on methamphetamine when he shot Diaz as the two men drove side by side on Interstate 40 near the Big I.
After turning himself in, Duquette told detectives he shot Diaz because he believed Diaz was going to kidnap his friends and “sell them into slavery for heroin,” according to court documents.
In the lawsuit, Nicole Salazar-Brown is seeking damages from Duquette; the owners of the home Duquette was renting, Soldiamore Picardal and Nenette Picardal; and property manager Jeffrey Monka, as well as Allstate Insurance Co.
The lawsuit alleges that for a year before the shooting, the home in the 10000 block of Calle Mirlo NW became known as the “Biker House,” where loud parties, guns and aggressive confrontations became commonplace. These instances posed an “unreasonable level of danger” to the neighbors, who included the Browns, and left them feeling “fear and intimidation.”
“Based on these warning signs, the Picardals and Monka should have never rented to Duquette, or at a minimum, should have evicted Duquette and his roommates from the Biker House,” according to the lawsuit. “However the Picardals and Monka ignored these warning signs — either because they put their profit over the safety of the neighborhood or they simple did not care enough about the safety of the neighborhood.”
The lawsuit says the bikers began retaliating against the couple after Jason Brown rejected “their invitation” to join the motorcycle club and on the night of the shooting the couple went to the house to “demand they leave (their) family alone.”
After an argument at the front door, the couple began walking away and had reached the sidewalk when a “visitor” at the home shot Jason Brown five times in the back and Nicole Salazar-Brown twice in the back, according to court records.
The lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.