Jurors convicted Romier Taguiam Narag in the 2023 killing of Frances Kendra Lucero as their two young children watched.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A California judge sentenced Romier Taguiam Narag to 64 years to life in prison after jurors found he murdered Frances Kendra Lucero outside her Daly City home in 2023 while their children, then ages 3 and 4, were nearby.

The sentence closes the trial phase of a case that drew intense attention in San Mateo County because of the ages of the children, the speed of the jury’s verdict and the defendant’s own words in court. Prosecutors said Narag chased and shot Lucero after an argument. The conviction for first-degree murder, plus a firearm finding and child endangerment counts, turned the March 5 sentencing into a measure of how the court viewed both the killing and its long reach into the children’s lives.

The case began on March 6, 2023, after Lucero returned from dinner with the children. Prosecutors said an argument with Narag started outside the house and quickly turned deadly. Deputy District Attorney Lucas King told jurors that Narag followed Lucero with a handgun, fired once inside or near the entry, then shot her repeatedly as she broke free and ran. Investigators said at least two rounds struck her in the back. Daly City police arrested Narag at the scene, and officers recovered the gun from beneath a nearby vehicle after the shooting. KTVU reported at the time that Lucero was 27 and that Narag, then 27, was booked on murder and child endangerment charges.

By the time the case reached trial, prosecutors leaned on both physical evidence and video. Redwood City Pulse reported that neighborhood security cameras recorded the shooting and that Lucero’s brother rushed toward Narag to try to get the gun away from him. The same report said the jury convicted Narag after about four hours of deliberation following a 14-day trial. Courtroom coverage after sentencing showed Narag apologizing, but not fully accepting blame. According to KRON, he told the court, “She pushed my buttons and it just happened.” Judge Jeffrey Finigan rejected any softening of responsibility. “The defendant has orphaned his own children and the devastation will last their entire lives,” the judge said from the bench.

That line from the judge captured why the case reached beyond one homicide file. Lucero’s death became part of a wider county reckoning over intimate partner violence. San Mateo County created a domestic violence task force after a series of killings in 2023, and county officials later named Lucero among five women killed in domestic violence cases that year. Redwood City Pulse reported that county figures and local advocates continued to describe domestic violence as a persistent crisis, with thousands of people affected in San Mateo County each year. In that setting, the Lucero case became both a prosecution and a public marker of how violence inside families can spread trauma to children, grandparents and entire neighborhoods.

The legal path is now clearer than the emotional one. Narag has been sentenced on the murder conviction, firearm enhancement and child endangerment findings, and he will serve his term in state prison unless an appeal changes the outcome. No new public hearing date has been announced in the case. The next formal step would typically be any appeal filed through the California courts, while the underlying criminal trial in county court is effectively over. What remains unknown in public records is how much more evidence from the investigation, including full surveillance footage and victim-impact material, may surface later through court filings or records requests.

Outside the courtroom, the story has centered on the children and on Lucero’s family. Her mother, Liezel Chan Lucero, said in a 2025 television interview that the children were still asking painful questions about their mother. “Is there a way to get ahold of my mom?” she recalled them asking. She said those moments broke her heart every day. A fundraising page created after the killing described Frances Lucero as a loyal friend and devoted mother whose life revolved around her children. Those descriptions stood in sharp contrast to the courtroom’s final image of the case: a young mother running for safety, and a family now raising the children she left behind.

The case now stands in San Mateo County as a closed prosecution with an open wound: a life sentence for the shooter, no further trial dates on the calendar, and two children growing up after a crime the judge said will shape the rest of their lives.

Author note: Last updated April 6, 2026.