Wheeler Cowperthwaite
For the Alamogordo News
The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the life sentence of Dominic De La O for the first-degree murder of police officer Anthony Ferguson.
De La O, 29, was convicted in and sentenced to life in prison in November 2024 for first-degree murder among other felony charges in the shooting that claimed Ferguson’s life when police attempted to stop a vehicle driven by De La O on July 15, 2023.
District Judge John Sugg handed down De La O’s sentence after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with an aggravating circumstance of killing an officer, tampering with evidence, aggravated fleeing an officer and trespassing. The jury acquitted him on an aggravated assault charge.
His appeal argued that the judge shouldn’t have given aggravating circumstances instructions to the jury, that there was insufficient evidence for a first-degree murder charge, that he should have received a mistrial after a prosecutor asked a witness about him having a warrant and that his convictions were “improperly aggravated.”
Justice David Thomson wrote in the July 9 decision that none of his arguments “merit relief.”
The shooting
Early in the morning on July 15, 2023, Alamogordo Police Officer Eric Cisneros tried to stop the car De La O was driving because its rear taillights were off. The car stopped, two women got out and walked toward him with their hands up and the car sped away, Thomson wrote.
De La O then led officers on a high-speed chase through a “populated neighborhood” in Alamogordo before crashing into a light pole and fleeing on foot down an alley. Police said he was seen carrying a sawed-off shotgun, while multiple officers pursued him.
During the chase, De La O fired at the officers, fatally striking Ferguson. Officers shot him in the leg and when they caught up to him, he pretended he didn’t speak English.
“At trial, Defendant did not dispute these facts. The theory of defense was that Defendant did not deliberate before pulling the trigger, but instead killed Victim in a rash or impulsive act amounting to second-degree murder,” Thomson wrote.
Jurors rejected this theory, finding him guilty of “willful and deliberate first-degree murder” as well as the aggravating circumstance of murdering an officer.
First-degree murder normally carries a sentence of life in prison with parole after 30 years. The aggravating circumstance resulted in the harsher sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
The arguments
De La O’s attorney argued in the appeal that the jury instructions “give the impression” that jurors could have conflated second-degree murder and first-degree murder with the aggravating circumstances.
While the justices found this was a very possible scenario, “when read as a whole, the jury instructions were clear,” Thomson wrote.
The appeal also argued that there was insufficient evidence for the jury’s finding that De La O killed Ferguson “willfully and deliberately,” required for first-degree murder. This argument cited just one gunshot, no evidence of a struggle and no “no statements that would suggest any animus towards police.”
When the justices looked at the case, there was “ample evidence” for first-degree murder, read the ruling.
“When his high-speed chase ended with Defendant crashing his car into a telephone pole, Defendant again considered his options and deliberately chose to take his sawed-off shotgun from the scene of the crash and run away, on foot, from pursuing officers,” Thomson wrote. “When officers ordered him to get on the ground, the jury could reasonably have inferred that Defendant deliberately chose not to comply with those orders, but rather to shoot Victim in the face with the sawed-off shotgun that he kept with him for just such a purpose.”
De La O argued that there wasn’t enough evidence for the tampering charge because police quickly found the gun and shirt he discarded, but Thomson wrote the jury rejected that argument.
De La O’s trial attorney moved for a mistrial after a witness said there was an active warrant for his arrest when he fled from police. While the judge told the jurors to disregard this statement, it was enough to derail the trial, he argued. The justices weren’t moved.
“In this case, the other evidence of guilt was overwhelming,” Thomson wrote.
Sentenced federally
In 2025, De La O pleaded guilty to a federal charge of possessing a modified shotgun, the one he used to kill Ferguson, and received an 8-year sentence.
The man who sold him the gun, Jonah Apodaca, pleaded guilty to felon in possession of a firearm and received a six-year sentence.
