By Roger Lanse

Ezequiel Ricoy, now 60 years-of-age, of Luna County, was convicted by the Sixth Judicial District Court on March 28, 2024, of first-degree murder involving the 2022 homicide of his son-in-law, Brandon Kern. Subsequent to that conviction, Ricoy was sentenced  by Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Jennifer DeLaney to a life sentence plus nine years.

Ricoy appealed that decision. 

According to a Nov. 10, 2025, opinion, The New Mexico Supreme Court denied Ricoy’s appeal and affirmed his conviction on the charge of first-degree murder.