2005-05-25

Sentencing phase begins in triple-homicide trial

By Jim McBride - Amarillo Globe News

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Blanca Urrutia almost always knew when her next-door neighbor, Fabiana Robledo, was home. Fabiana had a funny kind of laugh, one that sometimes resonated through open windows to Blanca's house.

"She was the one who brought life to that house," Urrutia told jurors Tuesday during punishment-phase testimony in the trial of Jimmie Urbano Lucero, 47. Lucero was convicted Monday of capital murder in the Sept. 6, 2003, shotgun slayings of Fabiana Robledo, 31, her 71-year-old father, Pedro, and her 72-year-old mother, Maria Manuela Robledo.

Lucero faces death by lethal injection or life in prison.

Prosecutors alleged Lucero killed Pedro Robledo with a shotgun blast as he pulled up in his car at the family's home in the 1700 block of East Sixth Avenue shortly before 10 a.m. that day. Before killing the Robledo patriarch, Lucero allegedly fired a blast that narrowly missed Socorro Robledo, who narrowly escaped in his truck.

The state claimed Lucero then burst into the home, shot Maria Manuela Robledo to death on her couch and broke into a bedroom, where he allegedly fatally shot Fabiana Robledo and severely wounded her sister, Guadalupe.

During punishment-phase testimony Tuesday, prosecutors sought to breathe new life into the victims through the voices of the neighbors who knew them.

Urrutia told jurors she often teased Pedro Robledo when freshly cut grass from his yard blew into hers. Pedro, she said, always came over and cleaned it up.

"He was a man who liked to tease and play with my family and me, and he was a man who liked to talk," she said.

Pedro's wife, Maria, was very friendly, but also a quiet person, Urrutia testified.

But Urrutia painted a less-than-friendly picture of the back-and-forth between next-door neighbors Jimmie Lucero and Fabiana Robledo, who sometimes yelled and hurled names at each other.

"She wasn't going to give him the importance he wanted," Urrutia said.

Guadalupe Robledo, who survived a shotgun blast to her left arm and chest, testified that several months before the shooting, Lucero and her father had words over the fence. Shortly after that, Lucero pointed a gun at her father.

In the wake of the shooting that left three members of her family dead, Guadalupe Robledo said she now is trying to gain custody of Fabiana's young son, Fabian, who witnessed the shooting rampage that killed his mother.

The boy, she said, cringes whenever he hears the wail of a police or ambulance siren.

"He becomes like hysterical, and he begins to cry. He screams and runs toward me so I can hold him," she said.

Angela Watkins, Jimmie Lucero's former girlfriend, painted a picture of a stormy relationship that she said ended with her leaving town to escape from her boyfriend.

Throughout her testimony, Watkins wiped away tears with her fingers and noticeably avoided eye contact with Lucero, a man she said she once cared for.

At first, Watkins said, Lucero was nice to her and they often dined together, but later he became jealous and controlling. One night, she said, the couple went out for dinner and Lucero suddenly attacked her when they arrived at his home. Lucero, Watkins testified, repeatedly punched her and kicked her 15-20 times in the shins and chest with his steel-toed boots.

On another occasion, Watkins said she stayed at her mother's house, and Lucero showed up late that night at the front door.

"He said, 'You come outside or I'll kill you or I'll kill your family," Watkins told the jury.

The woman said she thought Lucero would kill her, so she went with him to his house. Once there, Lucero cooled off and eventually went to the bathroom, leaving his gun on a nightstand.

"I picked up the gun and I was going to shoot him, but I couldn't pull the trigger," she said.

Watkins, who wept throughout her testimony, said Lucero, as he often did, apologized. She then walked out the door and began running, but Lucero insisted on driving her home and told her not to call the police. Eventually, Watkins said, she decided to leave town to avoid Lucero.

Defense attorney Joe Marr Wilson repeatedly grilled Watkins about why she never told anyone of the abuse and never called police until she eventually reported a burglary at her home.

"They're asking this jury to put a needle in his arm and now you want to talk about it?" Wilson asked the witness.

Watkins said she believed Lucero was responsible because nothing was taken, but she found bullets lying on her bed. The witness said she told friends about the abuse, but was too scared of Lucero to contact authorities until the burglary.

Prosecutor Chuck Slaughter also questioned Virginia Diaz, Watkins' former roommate, about an incident one night at the apartment she shared with Watkins, a cousin who was not home that night.

Diaz told jurors she and her boyfriend were sleeping when she awoke to find Lucero standing over her boyfriend, Eddie, with a cocked gun to his head. Diaz said she pleaded with Lucero to turn on the light so he could see Watkins was not in the bedroom. Lucero turned on the light, she said, but he appeared disappointed that his girlfriend was not in bed with another man.

"Jimmie was very upset, crying, telling Eddie how much he loved her ... he needed her in his life," Diaz said, "But he never trusted her."

The prosecution rested punishment-phase testimony Tuesday and the defense plans to call its first punishment witnesses today in 251st District Judge Pat Pirtle's court.