A Rio Arriba County grand jury indicted Lucas Gomez-Lopez, 37, of Española, on seven counts, including armed robbery.
The case was initially brought in May 2023 and then dismissed without prejudice on Feb. 12, 2025.
Gomez-Lopez, also known as “Pajaro,” was initially charged in a separate case with murder, by Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies, for allegedly shooting a man in Cuarteles in August 2024. Prosecutors dropped the murder charge in that case down to shooting at a vehicle resulting in death in exchange for Gomez-Lopez waiving a preliminary hearing. A jury selection hearing in that case is set for Sept. 16.
In the newest case, brought on April 16, grand jurors charged Gomez-Lopez with: aggravated assault against a household member, armed robbery, aggravated battery against a household member, criminal damage to the property of a household member, bribery of a witness (threats), aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest, based on the testimony of a single State Police officer.
The incident
New Mexico State Police Officer Mario Herrera, who testified to the grand jury, wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant that on May 24, 2023, he was sent to County Road 49 for a domestic dispute. The caller told dispatchers her sister’s ex-boyfriend was threatening her sister with a gun and drove into her sister’s car with his truck before leaving the house.
When Herrera arrived at the house, the people there told them Gomez-Lopez was on an all-terrain vehicle, trying to flee from the area. While Herrera tried to stop him, the man on the ATV fled, he wrote.
Multiple witnesses told Herrera that Gomez-Lopez had been calling the victim non-stop, demanding she give him back his phone and the title to a vehicle. He arrived at her house and started rifling through her vehicle. The victim went out and sat in the car to prevent him from looking inside it and she didn’t want to give him his phone back because she paid for it and for his phone service, Herrera wrote.
Gomez-Lopez then allegedly showed the victim he had a large knife in a pouch and tried to slash her tires and she gave him the phone to “prevent further conflict.” He got into his truck and then rammed her car while she was in it. Her brother then chased after him and Gomez-Lopez tried to slash his tires before chasing him back to the house, at which point Herrera arrived, he wrote.
Gomez-Lopez is charged with armed robbery for allegedly taking his phone back from his ex-girlfriend with a knife and aggravated battery against a household member for ramming her car with his truck while she was still sitting in it, Herrera wrote.
No court dates have been set.
Shooting case
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office investigators accused Gomez-Lopez, a Mexican national, of shooting Marcelino Herrera, 41, in Cuarteles on Aug. 18.
If convicted, Gomez-Lopez, 36, would face a maximum of 15 years, the same penalty as second-degree murder. He is being held without bail following a dangerousness hearing.
In court documents, some witnesses outlined what appeared to be a case of self defense, telling investigators the pair was involved in some kind of conflict following a drug deal and one witness told investigators that Marcelino Herrera put a gun in his back pocket, got in his truck and drove toward Gomez-Lopez, Detective Orlando Lopez wrote in court documents.
Other case status
In November 2024, prosecutors dismissed four counts of trafficking in a controlled substance against Gomez-Lopez, citing further investigation.
In a different case, on June 3, 2023, he was charged with two counts each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, fourth-degree felonies; resisting arrest, misdemeanors; and one count of possession of a controlled substance, a fourth-degree felony, in a case where he allegedly held a gun to the head of one of his tenants.
Española City Police Officer Isaiah Anaya wrote in a statement of probable cause for Gomez-Lopez’s arrest at the time, that two people who were renting a room from him said he told them he was kicking them out because they didn’t have their rent money on time, but they told him it would take longer than a day to move all their things. Gomez-Lopez allegedly left in the morning and when he came back that night, he allegedly pointed a gun at the two people renting the room.
One of the tenants told officers that Gomez-Lopez is an angry person and that she believed if officers had not arrived, he would have shot or hurt them.
Jury selection in that case is set for Sept. 8.