An Española man was ordered to be released from jail after prosecutors lowered the charge against him from second degree murder to involuntary manslaughter and he waived his right to a preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors initially sought to have Gerald Trujillo held without bail, alleging he is a danger to the community, following what was initially charged as an accidental fatal shooting in the Ohkay Casino parking lot on Nov. 15.
New Mexico State Police Agent Mario Villanueva initially charged Trujillo, 21, with involuntary manslaughter, then amended the charge to second degree murder. Prosecutors then sought to have Trujillo held without bail pending trial after he turned himself in, following the shooting. He initially fled the scene.
Prosecutors then downgraded the charge from second degree murder back to involuntary manslaughter. He is also charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence.
Trujillo is accused of fatally shooting his friend Elias Tiberi, 21, of Jemez Springs, in the passenger seat of his car while he was playing with a loaded pistol, and after the pair did a line of cocaine, according to court documents.
Following a motion hearing on Dec. 4, District Judge Anastasia Martin ordered Trujillo to be released on house arrest. He is to have an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet attached before being released. He waived a preliminary hearing in exchange for being released on house arrest, according to the prosecution’s motion.
He is to be allowed work release, is to have no weapons, no drugs and no contact with witnesses or Tiberi’s family.
Trujillo’s attorney, Jason Bowles, wrote in a response to the motion for pre-trial detention that prosecutors hadn’t considered any alternatives to jail, like house arrest, and that the allegations, which he disputed, were described as “occurring among friends, after drinking, with alleged reckless handling of a firearm, not intentional violence.”
No further court hearings have been set.
The Shooting
The narrative of the shooting comes from their friend, who witnessed the shooting, Villanueva wrote in an amended affidavit for an arrest warrant.
According to his account, as recounted by Villanueva, Trujillo and Tiberi had been hanging out at the bar, then went to Trujillo’s car. When the friend came out, Trujillo and Tiberi did a line of cocaine in Trujillo’s car and then Trujillo pulled out a pistol and started waving it around.
Initially, when Villanueva charged Trujillo with involuntary manslaughter, he wrote that Trujillo waved the pistol around toward the roof. Both Trujillo and Tiberi were laughing as Tiberi said “no, no, no” and as Trujillo was handling the gun, it went off, shooting Tiberi in the head.
In an amended complaint, charging Trujillo with second degree murder, Villanueva expanded the witness’s narrative, writing that Trujillo pointed the pistol at Tiberi multiple times, Tiberi pushed the gun away, there was a struggle over the gun and Tiberi was “more actively tempting (sic) to push the firearm away from himself” before the fatal shot, Villanueva wrote.
Trujillo started panicking, got out of the car, asked the witness to help him remove Tiberi from the vehicle and he said he refused. After Trujillo removed Tiberi from his car “by tossing Elias onto the pavement,” Trujillo got back in his car and drove away, while the witness went to security guards and told them his friend had been shot, Villanueva wrote.
According to surveillance footage, Trujillo drove back into the lot two minutes later, approached the body, then left the parking lot a second time, he wrote.
Trujillo’s Defense
Bowles included seven letters and emails attesting to Trujillo’s character in the court record, including one from his grandmother, who wrote that she played a large role in raising him.
“I have watched Gerald mature into the young man that he is now: kind, mature, responsible and hard working,” Sylvia Trujillo wrote. “Now that his grandpa and myself are getting up in age we have come to rely on him alot and he is always there to help us.”