A state District Court jury in Sandoval County has acquitted a 25-year-old woman of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a longtime friend in Rio Rancho in 2013.
In returning a not-guilty verdict Monday, the jury concluded that Amanda Jo Lucero might have shot 23-year-old Andrew Anderson in self-defense. His body was found on a busy street.
According to police, Anderson was shot during a confrontation over items missing from a residence that he had just left.
Defense lawyer Thomas Clark argued that his client had to shoot Anderson when he threatened Lucero and another woman with rocks and scissors.
Prosecutors argued that Anderson was not a grave threat to the women and that the killing was premediated.
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