A judge found Ricky Romero not competent to stand trial and a danger to the community, on Aug. 26, ordering him to be committed to the state’s mental hospital in Las Vegas.

Romero is charged with first degree murder for allegedly fatally shooting his father in Truchas on April 20.

Prosecutors tried to rebut the forensic report finding Romero not to be competent to stand trial but District Judge Anastasia Martin wrote in her order finding him not competent, that they “failed to rebut the presumption created by the (report) indicating that the Defendant is not competent.”

The issue of Romero’s competency was raised last year, one day before a planned hearing to see if he is a danger to the community and therefore, should have been held without bail pending trial.

Martin also found Romero to be a danger, writing she found “clear and convincing evidence that Defendant presents a serious threat of inflicting great bodily harm on another.”

Martin did not write what that clear and convincing evidence is.

While Martin found him not competent on Aug. 26, Romero is due back in court for an evidentiary hearing this month.

The court rules that allow for Romero to be committed to the New Mexico Behavior Health Institute in Las Vegas state that within nine months, the judge needs to evaluate if the person is “making progress toward attaining competency.”

If the person is making progress, they continue to be committed for treatment, with a checkin nine months later, according to the court rules.

If the person isn’t making progress and there is not “a substantial probability that the defendant will attain competency,” and the crime committed is serious, like first degree murder, then the judge holds a hearing to find if there is “clear and convincing evidence” the person committed the crime.

If the judge finds that the crime was committed, the person will then be sent to a psychiatric facility “until the expiration of the period of time 6 equal to the maximum sentence to which the defendant would have been subjected had the defendant been convicted in a criminal proceeding,” according to court rules.

For first degree murder, that means 30 years.

The court record contains no information on what type of evidentiary hearing is scheduled for later this month.

What Happened

Romero, 19, told New Mexico State Police investigators that problems started when his grandmother tried to physically shut his mouth so he would bite his own tongue. In retaliation, he pinched her shirt, which led to an argument, and he was told to leave the house, State Police Agent Ezequiel Esquivel-Mata wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant.

Once outside, his father, victim Fernando Romero, 44, threw a piece of firewood at him, he threw gravel at his father, and his father started chasing him, Esquivel-Mata wrote based on his interrogation of Ricky Romero.

That pattern repeated itself, with Fernando Romero pointing a gun at his son at one point, before Ricky Romero grabbed his dad’s gun and shot at him as his dad charged at him, he wrote.

“Ricky said he then fired the pistol once and struck Fernando in the chest,” Esquivel-Mata wrote. “Ricky described not seeing Fernando with any weapons in his hands and did not know the whereabouts of the revolver he previously observed. Ricky described thinking, ‘not gonna touch me, not gonna touch my mom’ prior to firing the weapon.”