Man charged in mother's slaying on West Side
Oct. 20—A man is behind bars after deputies say he killed his mother Monday morning at his home on the West Side.
Robert Lujan, 38, is charged with an open count of murder in the death of 72-year-old Virginia Lujan. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center Monday evening. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Court records show Virginia Lujan posted bond for her son to clear an arrest warrant on Oct. 5. Deputies had responded to the home on Saturday, according to court records, when Lujan's mother told his brother-in-law her son was violent, and the two men fought.
Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain Lujan until trial, calling him a danger to the community.
"The defendant killed someone — his own mother. It is clear from his actions that the defendant does not value human life," the motion states.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:
The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office responded on Monday around 9 a.m. to a home in the 5000 block of Fairfax NW, near Paradise and Golf Course, to reports of a dead woman. Deputies found Virgina Lujan's partially clothed body in the entryway with a blood-covered knife nearby.
The home was "completely in disarray," with broken furniture, shards of glass and pools of blood throughout. Lujan, who reportedly had scratches on most of his body, told responding deputies his mother had slipped and fallen on the soap.
Lujan's brother-in-law told deputies the mother called him to the home on Saturday because her son was "getting violent and behaving poorly." He said the two men got into a physical fight and deputies were called to detain Robert Lujan.
Lujan was issued a summons for battery against
his brother-in-law, and his son, who was at the home, was sent to stay at his aunt's for the weekend.
A deputy lapel video from that incident showed Virginia Lujan was in good health and just trying to "get help for her son."
The brother-in-law told deputies Lujan would take drugs, such as fentanyl and methamphetamine, and get violent. He said Virginia Lujan had last called him Monday morning to ask for help withdrawing money to pay for a car her son damaged.
In interviews, Lujan continually changed his story, but told deputies he argued with his mother over money, and she slipped and fell on the soap. He said he would never hurt his mother and loved her.
Lujan told deputies he cut his mother's clothes off of her and, if he cut her, it was by accident. When Lujan was alone in the interview room, he was caught on video saying "I killed my mom" repeatedly.
Lujan's father told deputies his wife would stay with Lujan in Albuquerque to help him with their grandson. He said she was supposed to return to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where they lived, but decided to stay due to Lujan's "increasingly bad behavior."
The husband told deputies he went back home alone Sunday morning and "never thought something like this would happen."
