Pellet-gun shooter sentenced to community corrections

A man who shot a teen with a pellet gun because he says the boy was planning to steal marijuana from his yard was sentenced to six years in community corrections.

Jason Lucero, 34, pleaded guilty in December to second-degree assault for shooting the 13-year-old boy in the chest. The pellet entered the boy’s chest and was found resting between his heart and liver.

“I’m very sorry for what I know I did. I did not expect that to happen. I didn’t expect him to get hurt. I just wanted them to leave my father alone,” Lucero told District Judge David Crockenberg in court on Friday morning.

Police found several weapons in Lucero’s home, including five air rifles, three handguns and three AK 47 rifles. When Crockenberg asked Lucero why there were so many weapons in the home, he replied, “My family just collects them. That’s it.”

Investigators found about 115 marijuana plants in Lucero’s backyard, some as high as 12 feet. Crockenberg asked Lucero why they were there without a proper license.

Lucero said he asked his father, who also lives in the home and suffers from dementia, to trim them but said his father was proud of them.

Before Crockenberg sentenced Lucero, he asked Lucero why police found a note that read, “I shot another kid at around 1:10 a.m. in the gut, I know I shot him, he was hurt, with a smiley face.” The note goes on to state, “Tomorrow I intend to look for blood.” The note was signed “Jason” with a smiley face next to it.

Lucero said his father had been hit by a rock a few days before the shooting.

“I wrote that note so that he wouldn’t be frightened going into his own backyard,” Lucero told the judge.

Crockenberg said that he was also concerned about a previous cruelty to animal conviction in Lucero’s record.

In addition to six years in community corrections, Crockenberg ordered that Lucero forfeit all of his weapons.