Accused in deadly rampage to get treatment before trial
Judge hopes man, 23, will ‘attain competency’
SANTA FE — A man who is accused of killing five people, including three family members, in a northern New Mexico shooting spree two years ago is being sent to the state behavioral health institute to help him “attain competency” to stand trial.
Damian Herrera, 23, last week was ordered by state District Judge Jason Lidyard to spend up to nine months in the state Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas “for treatment to enable the defendant to attain competency to stand trial,” court documents say.
Herrera is accused of killing his brother, Brendon Herrera, 20; mother, Maria Rosita “Brenda” Gallegos, 49; and stepfather, Max Trujillo, 55, at the family’s home in La Madera on June 15, 2017. He fled and later killed 61-year-old Michael Kyte in Tres Piedras and 59-year-old Manuel Serrano at a gas station in Abiquiu. He was arrested after crashing a truck he stole from Kyte and trying to fight with Rio Arriba deputies.
Herrera faces trial in both Rio Arriba and Taos counties in the rampage. His sisters told television reporters in June 2017 that he suffered from mental illness.
One of Herrera’s lawyers, Michael Rosenfield, said Tuesday that Herrera has been at the Behavioral Health Institute, the state’s only public psychiatric hospital, since May by order from the judge in the Taos case.
Rosenfield said if Herrera is deemed not competent to stand trial, a judge will hold a hearing where prosecutors will argue their case that Herrera committed crimes, but there will be no jury present.
If a judge finds that there’s enough evidence to convict Herrera, then the judge can sentence Herrera to serve his time at the Behavioral Health Institute instead of prison.
In July 2017, Herrera locked a Rio Arriba County jail guard in a cell and attacked another guard with a flashlight. There was another incident where Herrera tried to walk out of the jail through a door in the kitchen, according to police reports. He was later moved to a state prison, court records show.
Last year, Herrera’s Rio Arriba County trial was moved to Santa Fe County after his lawyers argued that he wouldn’t get a fair trial in Rio Arriba due to the publicity of the case.