Man charged with murder in wife's death

Elise Kaplan, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read

May 25—ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On Sunday around noon, an Albuquerque Police Department officer driving near Old Town was stopped by two men at Tiguex Park on Mountain near Rio Grande NW.

One of the men, 41-year-old Lee Marco Cuellar, said he had just killed his wife, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. He said his wife's body was in their Southwest Albuquerque house in a bedroom under a blanket.

The other man, Cuellar's cousin, said Cuellar had told him the same thing and asked to meet him at the park.

Other officers went to the couple's home across town on the 9900 block of Rio Madre, near Dennis Chavez and 98th SW. That's where they found 26-year-old Rosalejandra "Ally" Cisneros-Cuellar dead. She appeared to have been strangled.

Cuellar, a teacher at Kennedy Middle School, was arrested and charged with murder. It is unclear who his attorney will be and family members could not be reached.

Monica Armenta, a spokeswoman for Albuquerque Public Schools said Cuellar was a Reserve Officer Training Corps leadership teacher. She said the Human Resources Department gave him a letter of termination on Monday.

Cuellar told detectives that he and Cisneros-Cuellar had gone out for pizza near Old Town on Saturday. He said he saw a young man asking for money and offered him a few dollars.

But his conversation with the man upset him. He said he felt like "something was leaving him" "like his soul" and that he was on the wrong path, according to the complaint.

Cuellar said he and Cisneros-Cuellar went home and the two argued before going into separate rooms to sleep. He said they each took a pill "for agitation."

The next morning, Cuellar said, the couple got into a physical fight "because Lee believed Ally was a demon."

"Lee stated Ally was going to hurt his family in 'malicious, mean, and nasty ways' so Lee had to kill Ally," the detective wrote in the complaint, adding that "Lee told me he felt nothing after he murdered Ally."

The 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office has asked for Cuellar to be held in jail pending trial.

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