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A Ribera man is accused of fatally shooting his wife inside his vehicle with children in the back seat.
This is the second homicide investigated by the Rio Rancho Police Department in just ten days.
According to a criminal complaint, on the evening of April 3, RRPD arrived at Sandoval Regional Medical Center responding to a call about a woman being treated for a gunshot wound to the head. Desirae Lussow died after arriving at the hospital. Officers say that Lussow’s teenage son and his younger siblings were in the car when her husband, 35-year-old Pablo Padilla shot her.
Police said that the family was traveling from Ribera to Tow Daddy’s impound yard in Rio Rancho to pick up a car when the couple got into an argument. According to a criminal complaint, the argument escalated into a physical altercation between Padilla, Lussow and Lussow’s son. Police said Padilla pulled the vehicle over near Paseo del Volcan and Camino de Encantadas, picked up an AR-15 rifle that he stored by the driver’s seat, and shot Lussow in the head.
Padilla told police that the rifle went off while he, Lussow and her son fought over the gun and that he could not say who picked the gun up.
Police said that based on “physical evidence found by officers on scene and also the restricted space inside the vehicle cab, it would have been unlikely for [Lussow’s son] to gain control of the weapon such that it would have been able to shoot the back of [Lussow’s] head.”
While searching Padilla for weapons, police said they found a small baggie in his pocket containing a substance that Padilla said was methamphetamine. Padilla told police that he was driving his vehicle at 100 mph to get to the impound lot before it closed.
Padilla was booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center and charged with first-degree murder, possession of a controlled substance and reckless driving.
