Alejandro Gabriel Lucero

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On August 24 Adrianna Lucero went to get her son a Jell-O cup and a drink, when she called 911 and said her son had gone into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing and didn’t have a pulse.  Two year old Alejandro was flown to Primary Children's Medical Center where he died about 90 minutes later. Lucero told police she was watching a movie with Alejandro, her boyfriend and their 5 month old son when Alejandro's eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground unconscious. Lucero said her son was a healthy child, but that she had taken him to the hospital a week earlier because he had stopped walking for a time. Martinez-Gonzalez told police Lucero had taken her son into another room to get Jell-O and when she returned she complained that Alejandro was shaking and white. He said he did not hear or see anything related to the Alejandro’s fatal injuries.

 

The state medical examiner said Alejandro appeared to have been abused before. Alejandro had bruises and marks on his face, rib fractures that were healing and an old back injury that could have been caused by the same method of abuse that killed him. An autopsy was done, the state medical examiner concluded that Alejandro suffered a fatal injury to his spinal cord after his back was apparently bent in an abnormal way.  “The mechanism of the spinal fracture was not likely from a stomp or blow to the child’s back, but was more likely a severe, bending force which bent Alejandro’s lumbar spine backward and that would have taken some time to inflict, during which Alejadro would have been screaming the entire time,” read the autopsy. 

 

Authorities charged Lucero 17 at the time as an adult in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony murder in the death of her son.  Martinez-Gonzalez, 26, was arrested for obstruction and was booked on an immigration hold before receiving an additional charge. Lucero and Martinez-Gonzalez have twins together, who were removed from their care and placed in a foster home.

 

When Lucero went to trial for her charges, it only took a jury three and a half hours to find her guilty of murdering her toddler son by snapping his spine.  Judge Vernice Trease imposed a sentence of 15 years to life for the first-degree felony murder of Alejandro Lucero, and also sentenced Lucero to 15 years to life for second-degree felony child abuse. The judge ordered that the sentences run concurrently.

 

There are no clear answers as to why Lucero murdered Alejandro but there are some speculations.  Prosecutors insisted Lucero was a stressed out single mother with three children by the time she was 17 who coldly got rid of the “dispensable” child in her life.  They theorized that the toddler was wrecking Lucero’s chances to fulfill her version of the American dream, which included a family life with Martinez-Gonzalez, as well as a college degree and a shot at gaining financial wealth. They noted that Lucero had a fiery temper and broke things when in a rage.  Prosecutors also told the jury at the April trial that Lucero repeatedly lied about what had happened to Alejando to police, paramedics, hospital workers, her sister and her mother.  Defense attorneys, however, painted Lucero as a vulnerable young woman who was physically abused by her lover and who lied to police only to protect him from being deported to his native Mexico because he was here illegally.  Defense attorneys maintained that Martinez-Gonzalez was the person who wanted Alejandro out of the way and this adult male was the person with the physical strength to break Alejandro’s spine.

 

Age: 22 Months

Location: Utha

  Suspect in death: Adrianna Lucero, Mother