Federal Jury Convicts Las Cruces Man of Federal Firearms Offense

ALBUQUERQUE – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office, announced that on Feb. 13, 2024, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict against Jesus Coronado, 42, of Las Cruces. The jury convicted Coronado of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Judge Margaret I. Strickland presided.

A federal grand jury returned a superseding indicted against Coronado on June 21, 2023. According to publicly available court documents, on Dec. 11, 2021, a woman was leaving a smoke shop when her former boyfriend, Coronado, pulled up next to her vehicle and brandished a firearm while making a jabbing gesture with it in her direction. Both vehicles then fled the parking lot.

Officers from the Las Cruces Police Department (LCPD) obtained an arrest warrant for Coronado and located his vehicle at a residence in Las Cruces, but the residents told officers Coronado was not there. Officers conducted sporadic surveillance of the residence for the next several days until they observed a male matching Coronado’s description in the driveway on Dec. 13, 2021. The officer commanded the male to stop, but he appeared to flee into the residence instead. Officers set up a perimeter around the residence and called for the residents to exit. Two women and another male obeyed the commands and the male told officers that Coronado had not entered the residence but had actually gone around the back. An officer holding the perimeter in the neighbor’s backyard climbed onto the fence separating the properties and observed a firearm on the roof of the residence. Sometime later, a neighbor called LCPD to report that a male matching Coronado’s description was hiding behind a wall across the street. At that time, officers located Coronado hiding behind a small cinderblock wall on a nearby property and arrested him. Subsequent DNA testing on the firearm matched Coronado’s DNA. As a previously convicted felon, Coronado knew that he could not possess a firearm and ammunition.

Coronado will remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not been set. At sentencing, Coronado faces 10 years in prison.

The FBI Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case with the assistance of the Las Cruces Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher McNair and Richard Williams are prosecuting the case.

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