020816 Peter Dillon Lucero trail

A Las Cruces man accused of raping a woman during a visit to a senior home changed his plea a day after the trial started.

Peter Dillon Lucero, 25, was visiting a relative at the Good Samaritan Society Center, near Memorial Medical Center, when he entered the room of a wheelchair-bound, 50-year-old woman and raped her.

Lucero was initially charged with kidnapping, which carried an 18-year prison sentence, and criminal sexual penetration, which carried a nine-year sentence.

On the eve of the trial, prosecutors said they were reducing the charges from kidnapping to false imprisonment. That meant instead of facing 18 years in prison, Lucero would face 18 months if found guilty.

The next day, Lucero pleaded guilty.

“In this case, when we started the exposure was 27 years. As he plead, his exposure is going to be nine years so that is a two-thirds reduction from where we started the case,” said Defense Attorney Randy Ortega.

A spokesman for District Attorney Mark D’Antonio, Patrick Hayes, explained to ABC-7 it was not a plea agreement.

“Prosecutors made the decision to reduce the charges based on the facts and evidence of the case. The defendant also pleaded guilty without any agreement to sentencing,” wrote Hayes.

Lucero will serve nine years in prison because both sentences will run concurrently.

“I could not be more pleased with the results,” District Attorney Mark D’Antonio said. “This is case where an predator in our community took advantage of the most vulnerable in our society. … We got the best results we could possibly ask for. “

ABC-7 spoke with the victim’s son, who said he was hoping for the maximum sentence.

“I’m just hoping that he can never do this to anybody else ever again,” the victim’s son told ABC-7. “And I’m hoping that this raises awareness. Of course this is nothing less than catastrophic for us but I hope that moving forward more people are … we can stop this before it happens again.”

Monday, jurors heard from a dietitian working at the nursing home the day of the alleged rape. She said she encountered Lucero and gave him directions around the facility.

Amelia Rivera testified she became concerned when Lucero made inappropriate comments to her. “He said, ‘I’m Dillon’ and I said, ‘nice to meet you.’ Then he asked, ‘are you married?’ I said, ‘yes I am and I have two kids,” said Rivera. “It was during that time that he ended up telling me, ‘well, you have a nice ass for having two kids,'” Rivera added.

A health care administrator at Good Samaritan also testified Monday. She said Lucero was not a complete stranger at the facility. Lucero visited his grandfather regularly and residents usually asked him to “wheel them” around. “I believe those residents (he helped) had asked him to go their room or the dining room, but typically we wouldn’t allow that,” said Micah Herold.

Herold told the court there were 15 to 20 staff members making the rounds the day of the alleged rape. Surveillance video allegedly shows Lucero taking the alleged victim to her room, then leaving her room 30 minutes later.

Herold said staff check on residents every hour and the residents’ beds also have a button so they can page staff in the case of an emergency.

According to a Statement of Facts obtained by ABC-7’s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom, Lucero told detectives the victim asked him if she could perform oral sex on him. Lucero allegedly said he agreed, then had sex with her.

A nurse who spoke with detectives told them she found the woman on the floor, partially naked. The alleged victim told the nurse she fell down.

Nurse Shelly Hansen testified Monday the accuser could not lean over a bed without assistance because she suffers from multiple sclerosis.

“Could she have bent over in her wheelchair and given oral sex to someone,” asked a prosecutor.

“No,” replied Hansen.

When detectives interviewed the 50-year-old woman, she would only tell them Lucero touched himself in front of her, according to court documents. The woman was hesitant when asked if Lucero raped her and told detectives she could not remember what happened.