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On a spring evening in 2023, a 27-year-old mother was shot and killed in San Mateo County by her ex-boyfriend, in front of their two young children. The 14-day murder trial came to a close on Wednesday afternoon.
The jury found Romier Taguiam Narag, the 30-year-old defendant, guilty of first-degree murder, child abuse, firearm use, and a “high degree of callousness,” among other offenses, according to Shin-Mee Chang, the chief deputy of the county District Attorney’s Office.
The killing took place on March 6, 2023, when the victim, Frances Lucero, drove her 3-and 4-year-old children back home after dinner. Outside, Romier Taguiam Narag, the defendant and father of the children, followed Lucero inside her house with a handgun. Seconds after she entered, he shot her once. Lucero broke free and ran from the house to escape Narag. As she ran, Narag shot her four more times in “close proximity,” and died from her wounds, the county’s deputy district attorney, Lucas King, said.
The victim’s brother ran to Narag to remove the gun from his hands. Police eventually arrived, and Narag was arrested, his gun recovered from under a nearby vehicle. Neighborhood security cameras recorded the shooting.
The jury reached a verdict swiftly, finding Narag guilty within four hours of closing arguments. The trial ended at 1:30 p.m. with Judge Jeffrey Finigan announcing the guilty verdict shortly after deliberations. Narag could face up to life in prison.
Domestic violence impacts an estimated 10,000 people in San Mateo County each year, the county’s Domestic Violence Council found. In 2024, six homicides in three households were domestic violence-related, while in 2023, five homicides in five households were too, the county’s only intimate partner violence nonprofit, Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA), reported.
In December 2025, a man was suspected of killing his wife in Redwood City in the passenger seat of a car, then shot himself in the head. He died shortly after.
“[Lucero] is just one example,” said Phoebe Venkat, a CORA board member. “Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, it could never happen in my family or to someone that I respect or love, right? You never know.”
CORA is the only nonprofit in San Mateo County dedicated to helping victims of intimate partner violence with mental health and legal support, as well as temporary and long-term housing to escape a violent situation at home. It saw over 2,000 calls on its legal hotline from 2024 to 2025, according to the organization’s annual impact report.
The organization will contribute to the county’s new Family Justice Center, which will serve as a “one stop shop” for support through a single channel to combat the “frustration” of having to “tell their story many, many times to different people,” Venkat said.
While Narag’s verdict and the March 5 sentencing are a reason to celebrate for Liezel Chan Lucero, the victim’s mother, the fact that it took nearly three years for the case to close has been a source of great frustration.
“Reliving the whole thing over and over,” she said, “it seems like my daughter died for the second time.”
Liezel Chan Lucero wants to see a justice system that works faster, and one with stricter laws on firearms, to mitigate domestic violence incidents like that which killed her daughter. The victim’s mother also encourages people not be afraid to “speak up” before it’s too late, because “there’s always a solution for everything.”
Editor’s Note: The story has been updated to show that Frances was shot an additional four times, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
