Las Cruces Area Man Arrested for Alleged Rape Inside Senior Living Center

Police have charged a man suspected of raping a woman inside a senior living center and confining the woman to her apartment.

Peter Dillon Lucero, 25, is charged with one count each of kidnapping, a first-degree felony count, and a second-degree felony count of criminal sexual penetration.

Police say Lucero was visiting the Good Samaritan Society living center when sometime around noon on February 22 when Lucero approached the room of a 50-year-old woman who resides at the center, suffers from multiple sclerosis and spends much of her time in a wheelchair. Detectives believe Lucero entered the woman’s room uninvited shortly after noon and closed the door behind him.

Once inside the woman’s room, detectives believe Lucero exposed himself and then proceeded to sexually assault the woman. Around 1 p.m., a nurse heard the woman calling for help. The nurse entered the woman’s room, and found the resident on the floor and only partially clothed.

Detectives reviewed video surveillance footage from the living center which appears to show Lucero entering the woman’s room shortly after noon and leaving approximately 30 minutes later.

Lucero was arrested Saturday and booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center with a cash-only bond set at $50,000.