‘Shot Him at Point-Blank Range’: White Cop with Red Devil Tattoo Who Killed Black Man Accused of Stealing Beer Wins New Trial After Judge Rejects Jury’s Verdict
A white New Mexico cop with a red devil tattoo on his forearm was convicted on manslaughter charges in February for shooting and killing a 36-year-old Black man named Presley Eze in 2022, who had been accused of shoplifting a $2.39 can of Budweiser from a gas station convenience store. But a state judge rejected the jury’s decision granting former Las Cruces Police Officer Brad Lunsford a new trial. New Mexico District Judge James B. Foy claimed the evidence presented during the eight-day trial was “weak in proof,” essentially nullifying the jury’s verdict. Presley Eze was killed by a New Mexico cop with a red devil tattoo on his arm after a store clerk accused him of stealing a beer (Photo: body camera video). But now it’s been revealed that Lunsford was not only texting fellow officers during his criminal trial who were in the courtroom to support him that week — including his police chief — he later deleted those messages to keep them from being obtained as evidence for the upcoming civil trial against him. Judge Roy ordered Lunsford released from jail five weeks after his conviction, where he was being held awaiting sentencing. The former cop is now sitting at home with his family, awaiting a new criminal trial as well as the civil trial stemming from the lawsuit filed against him by Eze’s family. Neither trial has been scheduled. Eze, who was born in Connecticut to Nigerian immigrant parents, was married with a child and working as a nurse in New Mexico when he was killed. He had no active warrants nor has there been any mention of him having a previous criminal record. Watch the video of him shooting Eze below. The Shooting Eze was still in the parking lot of the gas station in the passenger seat of a car with two other friends when Lunsford pulled up 30 minutes after receiving the shoplifting call on Aug. 2, 2022. Body camera video shows Eze telling Lunsford that he had walked into the store with the beer already in his hand and tried to buy a pack of cigarettes, but the employee wouldn’t sell it to him because he did not have identification. He said the employee then accused him of stealing the beer, but Eze told the cop to check the security cameras to prove he did not steal the beer. Lunsford stuck his head in the store and asked the employee if Eze had walked into the store with the beer, and the employee said no. The cop did not ask to see the security footage. The cop then walked back to the car where Eze was sitting in the passenger’s seat and asked for his name through the driver's side window, but was having difficulty understanding him, telling him, “I can’t hear you” at one point. He was still unsure when he walked back to his patrol car to run his name for warrants, telling the dispatcher the suspect’s name was either “Keith” or “Pete” and that his last name was either “Ezer” or “Eser” — spelling each name out in police alphabet code — but neither came back in the system, which made Lunsford suspicious. But it should be noted that the surname, Eze, is Nigerian and means “King” or “Chief” and is pronounced Ez-Eh, so it appears the cop misunderstood, since it is not a common American name. Lunsford then walked up to the passenger’s side of the car with another cop who had arrived and ordered Eze out, pulling him out of the car while accusing him of “reaching.” Eze told him he was trying to be cooperative, but was confused as to why the cop was grabbing him. As they were wrestling him to the ground, the other cop’s taser fell off his belt clip, landing near Eze’s right hand as he held himself up for support against their weight. But Lunsford reacted by pulling out his gun and firing a single shot into the left side of Eze’s head at point-blank range, killing him instantly. Atlanta Black Star obtained the surveillance video from the store, and the footage is grainy, but it appears Eze walked into the store with a can of beer in his hand while the clerk was talking to another customer, so the clerk did not see him walk in. Eze then walked to the cooler of beer and appeared to exchange the can of beer in his hand with another one from the cooler, maybe because the one he walked in with was no longer cold. He then walked out of the store with the can of beer in his hand, which is when the clerk called the cops, who arrived 30 minutes later, finding Eze still in the parking lot sitting in the passenger's seat of his friend's car. Criminal Investigation and Trial It is difficult to see on the video, but investigators from the Dona Ana County District Attorney’s Office said Eze grabbed the taser but did not discharge it or point it at the officers. “Officer Lunsford had two less-lethal options on his duty belt (CEW and baton) neither of which were utilized,” states the arrest warrant filed by the district attorney’s office against him for charges of voluntary manslaughter with firearm enhancement which could lead to a maximum sentence of 12 years in New Mexico. “The killing of Presley Eze is a tragedy and serves as yet another example of poor police tactics resulting in an unjustifiable use of force to subdue an individual resisting arrest for the commission of a minor crime,” said Attorney General Raul Torrez in a Oct. 3, 2023, statement announcing the charges against Lunsford. “As New Mexico’s chief law enforcement officer, I have a duty to hold everyone accountable for violations of the law, and that includes police officers who cross the line.” New Mexico consistently ranks as having some of the deadliest cops in the nation and rarely prosecutes cops who kill in the line of duty, much less convicts them. But on Feb. 12, a 12-person jury unanimously convicted Lunsford, a rarity in a state that last year led the nation in police shootings per capita, according to Mapping Police Violence. However, Lunsford was released from jail on March 21 after his attorneys filed a motion alleging several judicial errors, including the judge allowing two alternative jurors to replace two selected jurors. Judge Foy granted the motion, ordering the cop’s release from the jail where he had been awaiting sentencing, acknowledging he had committed judicial errors during the trial. “I made assumptions I shouldn’t have made,” Foy said during a hearing, according to KFOX-TV. Earlier this month, Foy published his opinion stating the evidence used by the jury to convict the cop was “weak in proof.” What it boils down to for this Court is that although a jury could find guilt and did find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, this judge based upon the evidence presented believes the case presented was weak in proof that Mr. Lunsford was not justified in the force used against Mr. Eze given all the surrounding facts and circumstances of this case. The Pending Civil Trial In June, the attorneys for Eze’s family filed a motion for default judgment in the civil case on the basis that Lunsford destroyed evidence, specifically the text messages he sent to Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story, as well as a lieutenant and sergeant who were in the courtroom during the trial. Shannon L. Kennedy, one of the attorneys representing the Eze family, stated the following in the motion for default judgment. Lunsford has zero compunction about killing Presley, nor destroying evidence about it. Lunsford is cold and clinical. He does not share his counsel’s compunction about flouting the rules of discovery. Thus, the only way to deter him and others like him is an entry of default judgment. A lessor sanction will not deter him. If Lunsford is not sanctioned with default judgment, then he will get away with keeping Plaintiffs completely in the dark about why he killed Presley Eze until the civil trial. Default Judgment is the only sanction that remedies the prejudice to Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs asked for electronic communications while Lunsford was in the criminal trial in February because they learned he was texting Chief Story. The 78-page motion also includes details of the corruption within the Las Cruces Police Department, specifically in how the agency attempted to protect Lunsford in the wake of the shooting by refusing to release evidence. It also includes exhibits like Lunsford’s social media posts on his personal Facebook page, saying things like, “I hate vagrants.” And it shows Lunsford was evasive in his deposition, repeatedly invoking his right to remain silent when asked questions relevant to the shooting investigation, refusing to answer questions about the red devil tattoo prominently displayed on his left forearm But the federal judge in the civil case did not believe the destruction of evidence was enough to impose default judgment sanctions against Lunsford, which would have brought the civil case to an end without a trial in favor of Eze’s family, resulting in significant monetary damages. Instead, the judge imposed lesser sanctions for the deleted texts, ordering the cop to pay “reasonable costs and fees” to the attorneys representing the family of Eze in a wrongful death lawsuit for the costs incurred in preparing the motion to impose default judgment sanctions. A slap on the wrist. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Kea W. Riggs determined a default judgment was “not appropriate,” while acknowledging he destroyed evidence, stating the following in her ruling published Monday: Defendant Lunsford admitted that he “deleted his text messages to any member of the City of Las Cruces Police Department and any employee of the City of Las Cruces, including but not limited to, the former or current Police Chiefs of the Las Cruces Police Department from August 2, 2021 to the present time.” He makes no argument that he deleted messages for any other reason than to deprive Plaintiffs of the content. Rather, Defendant Lunsford acknowledges he deleted texts, and he did so after it was apparent that his communications about the shooting were relevant to the litigation. Meanwhile, Eze’s family is confident that justice will finally be served as Lunsford sits at home awaiting both the criminal and civil trials to be scheduled. "If you try this case 10 times, the fact is, Brad Lunsford took a gun, put it on my son's head, and shot him at point-blank range,” his mother, Loretta Eze, told KFOX14.
