Adlai Mestre Case: Indictment, Mental Health, and Red Flag Law

The Adlai Mestre case is a New Mexico triple-homicide prosecution in which 25-year-old Adlai Mestre stands indicted on three counts of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and animal cruelty for the October 2024 killings of his father, mother, and 17-year-old sister at their home in Tijeras. A Bernalillo County grand jury returned the indictment on July 10, 2025, after a judge found him competent to stand trial. No trial date has been set.¹

What Happened at the Tijeras Home

On the afternoon of Sunday, October 13, 2024, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a 911 call about gunshots at a home on Young Road in Tijeras, east of Albuquerque. A neighbor had called after hearing shots and being unable to reach the family.² When deputies arrived around 2:14 p.m., they found Mestre, then 24, outside the residence covered in blood and holding a loaded handgun.³

Inside and around the home, deputies found the bodies of Mestre’s father, Raymundo Mestre, 46; his mother, Bertha Huerta Conde (also known as Bertha Mestre), 51; and his 17-year-old sister, Brielle Mestre. The family dog had also been shot, reportedly three times.⁴ Investigators said Mestre had dragged the victims from the house into a nearby ravine and tried to clean the scene. Deputies observed trails of blood throughout the residence, with transfer patterns consistent with drag marks and mopping.²

The firearm used in the killings was legally registered to his mother.⁴ Along with the gun, deputies recovered a knife, a hammer, and a meat tenderizer near the front door, all covered in blood. Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman later said the victims had been shot multiple times and were also likely bludgeoned with the meat tenderizer.⁵

What Mestre Told Deputies

Mestre was detained at the scene without a prolonged standoff and began making unprompted statements almost immediately. Body camera footage captured him telling officers that his family had tried to enter his room and attack him, claiming his father had a knife and his sister had a sledgehammer. He then added that he had killed them but had “found their bodies and their wounds were healed.”⁶ Deputies also reported him talking about “seismic waves” and claiming he had previously shot at cell towers.⁷ He described the family dog as “ravenous” when explaining why he killed it.⁵

In a later interview, asked what he had needed to do, Mestre answered: “Kill.” He also told deputies, “I killed them and was going to bury them.”⁸ Left unattended in an interrogation room, he kicked a hole through the drywall and sprinted down a hallway before being recaptured. That escape attempt drew additional charges of escape from police custody and criminal damage to property.⁹

Mental Health History and the Competency Ruling

Mestre had been admitted to Haven Behavioral Hospital in southeast Albuquerque for mental health and substance abuse treatment roughly a year before the killings. According to Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen, records from that hospitalization indicated Mestre had shown “no homicide or suicidal ideations” at the time.⁴

His post-arrest statements about healed wounds, seismic waves, and cell towers prompted a competency inquiry. In April 2025, a judge ruled him incompetent to stand trial and sent him for restoration treatment. By June 2025, a second evaluation led a judge to find him competent to proceed, clearing the way for the grand jury indictment the following month.¹

The Indictment and Current Charges

On July 10, 2025, District Attorney Sam Bregman announced that a Bernalillo County grand jury had indicted Mestre on three counts of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and one count of animal cruelty.¹ The initial complaint after his arrest had included broader counts, among them five counts of tampering with evidence, extreme cruelty to animals, escape from custody, and criminal damage to property.³ The grand jury indictment supersedes that complaint and refines the counts he now faces. As of July 2025, no trial date had been scheduled.¹⁰

Why the Case Renewed the Red Flag Law Debate

The killings became a reference point in a broader argument over New Mexico’s Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order, known as the red flag law. Signed in 2020, the law allows only law enforcement officers and prosecutors to petition a court to temporarily seize firearms from someone deemed a credible threat. Mental health professionals, family members, and others cannot file such petitions on their own.⁴

Sheriff Allen pointed to the case as illustrating a gap. He said Mestre’s prior hospitalization had not triggered any notification to law enforcement, so deputies had no opportunity to assess whether firearms in the home posed a risk. Allen argued that “there needs to be some type of recognition in the system or notification of law enforcement that there are firearms in the house” when an individual seeks a mental health evaluation. Miranda Viscoli of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence called the current law “practically impossible” for mental health professionals to use and pushed for amendments allowing clinicians to petition for firearm removal. Advocates had attempted to pass such amendments for three consecutive legislative sessions at the time of the killings.⁴

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