Roswell, N.M. — Two local teenagers face multiple criminal charges following their arrests
Monday night (Aug. 30) after they went on a short-lived crime spree during which they
attempted a carjacking and shot at the vehicle, stole another car, and committed an armed
robbery.
Monday’s series of events began around 4:30 p.m. at a park in east-central Roswell and
ended with the suspects being taken into custody shortly before 7:30 p.m. as they sat in the
stolen car outside a residence in the southwest part of town. The suspects were formally
arrested early Tuesday morning (Aug. 31) after arrest-warrant affidavits were put together
by a Roswell Police Department detective and warrants were approved by a judge.
The RPD investigation determined Audric Arthur Lacey, 18, and Serena Marie Montoya, 16,
attempted to steal a car – with Lacey threatening the driver at gunpoint shortly after
Montoya had gotten into the car with the driver, whom she knew, and was pretending to be
uninvolved in the carjacking scheme – while it was parked at Loveless Park in the 1200
block of North Atkinson Avenue. As the car prepared to flee, Montoya later told
investigators, she got out of the car and directed Lacey to shoot at it as it drove away. The
car was struck by Lacey’s gunfire at least seven times, and he is believed to have fired
additional shots that did not strike the vehicle. Neither the car’s driver nor anyone else in
the area was struck.
Montoya told investigators she and Lacey then fled in another nearby car that was left
running in the parking lot of the park while its driver was in an adjacent parked vehicle.
Investigators believe Lacey drove that stolen car to Cielo Grande Recreation Area in the
1600 block of West College Boulevard on the west side of the city, where he and Montoya
robbed at gunpoint four teens who were at the skate park there. The stolen items – a
necklace, AirPods and several cellphones – were later recovered from the stolen car in
which the suspects were found.
The investigation soon led police to the 3100 block of Radcliff Drive, where officers located
the stolen car in a residential driveway and Lacey and Montoya sitting in the vehicle. They
were taken into custody, interviewed and held at the police department until the arrest
warrants were issued several hours later.
Lacey and Montoya are each charged with four counts of armed robbery, five counts of
conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and one count each of shooting at or from a motor
vehicle and attempted armed robbery. Lacey is also charged with two additional counts:
unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Following their arrests early Tuesday morning, Lacey was booked into the Chaves County
Detention Center and Montoya was booked into the Lea County Juvenile Detention Center.