Lena Fresquez Mendez still expects a call or a text from her son, Adam. But it’s been almost two years since Adam Michael Fresquez was shot and killed at a car-charging station in Edgewater.
On Tuesday, the jury selection in the trial of Jeremy Alan Smith, 40, who faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the 2023 shooting death of Adam Micheal Fresquez, began. Mendez and her supporters have attended the court proceedings that led to this point.
“I don't know that there is a way to prepare [for this trial],” Mendez said. “We've been living this for almost 21 months, and now we're finally going to trial and it doesn't feel real still. I still keep expecting to get that text or that call.”
In what is described as a road rage incident, Smith is claiming self-defense. But, the family disagrees.
“He made a choice and his choice was to mace him, shoot him twice in the back and drive away. You don't do that to somebody,” Mendez said. “You don't leave somebody laying there on the ground dying or not knowing what you did and drive away like he was nothing.”
What happened on the day of the shooting?
Fresquez was born in Colorado and raised in Texas His family moved back to Colorado 10 years ago. Mendez and her husband, Juan, Fresquez's stepfather, live with their two younger sons in Johnstown.
Fresquez, who was 33, left behind a wife, Alyssa, and two children, Aalyiah and Jesse. They live in Denver. Fresquez worked with his brother Mario’s company mostly in parking lot services.
Earlier on the day of the shooting, Mendez said Fresquez had just dropped his daughter off at school. He had gone home to grab something for her niece and went to charge his car at a charging station.
According to the arrest affidavit, officers responded to the report of a person being shot at the Tesla charging station in the parking lot of the Shake Shack near the Edgewater Public Market at 9:39 a.m. on May 3, 2023.
Video shows Fresquez’s silver Tesla arriving at the charging station. Smith arrived seconds later in his red Tesla and parked in a space furthest north. Fresquez is shown walking and stumbling toward Smith’s Tesla.
Smith called 911 and described the confrontation as road rage to officers. He told officers that Fresquez had pulled a gun on him and wanted to fight. Smith said that’s when he maced him. After Fresquez went for his gun, that’s when Smith said he shot him.
Mendez was at work when she got the call from her son Mario about the shooting.
“One of his friends called him and said that he saw a car that looked like Adam's in a shooting at the Tesla charging station. And I told him, “No, you're crazy,” Mendez said “That's not Adam … And he called me about 15 minutes later and he's like, ‘Mom, I think you need to get over here.’”
Mendez went over to the scene of the shooting. She said that officers wouldn’t allow Mario near the car to confirm if Fresquez was the victim.
“I remember pulling into the parking lot, and I remember Mario and my daughter coming to me,” Mendez said. “Everybody was there. And I guess they didn't want to tell me that they got confirmation that that was Adam until I got there. But, that's when I found out it was Adam.”
The investigation
After an investigation, it was revealed that both men were armed at the time of the shooting. The West Metro Fire Department discovered a firearm in Fresquez’s clothes. Another firearm was found in Fresquez’s car wrapped in a red sweatshirt.
Mendez said Fresquez had a carry license and both guns were registered to him.
According to court documents, one witness who was sitting two parking spaces over from Smith’s car said he saw Smith pull out a gun. The witness said Fresquez seemed to have a gun, but it wasn’t pulled out. Another witness seated on an outside patio of the building north of the charging station saw Fresquez slapping the windows of Smith’s car wanting to fight. But, he didn’t see a gun in Fresquez’s hands.
The toxicology results in the autopsy report showed cocaine and fentanyl in Fresquez’s blood at the time of his death. Small bags of cocaine and blue fentanyl pills were also found in his pants.
On Dec. 12, 2023, Smith was arrested at his home in Denver and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. After seeing Smith at his first court appearance, Mendez wanted to ask him about his choice to take Fresquez’s life. She said she struggles with the fact that she can’t hate him.
“As much as the world wants me to hate this man, and people tell me I have that right, I don't hate him,” Mendez said. “What I do feel is anger towards him. He made a choice to take somebody's life that didn't have to do, he didn't have to do that at any time. He could have drove away. He could have not followed.”
Coping
Mendez said Adam’s daughter, Aaliyah, always asks about her dad. They made pillows and blankets with his face to remind her of her father. Mendez said it’s still not the same.
“She was 3 years old, 4 years old, and he never even let her walk. She was always in daddy's arms and he lit up her face every time she saw him. He would walk in and her face would light up,” Mendez said. “And now she doesn't have that. And I think that I would like to say that she's adjusting well, but I don't know that she is. I think that this didn't have to happen.”
The Denver Justice Project has advocated for the Fresquez family since June 2023. Their concern with the case was an unequal application of the self-defense law. In a similar case, the advocacy group stood by Stephan Long, a Black man who killed two white brothers in a road rage incident in June 2023 in self-defense. Then-Denver District Attorney Beth McCann dropped all charges against Long a year later.
While the roles are reversed in a similar case, the Denver Justice Project doesn’t believe Smith’s act is justifiable.
“There's a clear difference in how self-defense laws are being applied. We do know that homicides in which a white shooter kills a black or brown victim are deemed justifiable five times more often than when the roles are reversed,” said Casey Childers, Director of Operations for the Denver Justice Project. “And this is similar to what we were saying in the case of Stephan Long, is that self-defense laws need to be applied equally, and there's a clear racial bias in the way that they're being applied.”
Even though Smith is now on trial, Mendez doesn’t believe justice will be served, even if he is convicted.
“Even if we get a conviction, and I'm praying to God that we do, there will never be justice because this man is not somebody who has any kind of empathy for what he did,” Mendez said. “He walks into the courtroom and he smiles, and he has no remorse or anything for what he’s done. He took a life, he took my son's life, my granddaughter's dad, my children's brother, and he feels nothing.”
The trial is expected to last until Feb. 7.
