7-16-2025 4:35pm

Is De La O Tied to Open Cases? Dominic De La O Sentenced to an Additional 8 Years in Death of Officer Ferguson

Chris Edwards Editor

The controversial former police informant and convicted murderer, Dominic De La O of Alamogordo already serving a life sentence for the murder of Alamogordo police officer Anthony Ferguson, now has an additional 8 years piled on to his sentence.

Dominic De La O's previous life conviction was for shooting Officer Ferguson in the head with a sawed-off shotgun during a foot chasei in 2023. His sentence is now even longer, than life in prison.

A federal judge sentenced Dominic De La O to another eight years in federal prison for gun charges. He will serve that eight-year sentence after he serves his current state life sentence.

The 27-year-old had a history of run ins with law enforcement and is rumored to have been a person of interest in the death Donovan Marquis Contreras, age 24, who passed away on July 12, 2019. The Contreras family has followed the path and investigated a narrative, that includes a phone call, in which they have a video of, in which Dominic De La O, speaks of the death of Donovan Marquis Contreras.

Donovan Marquis Contreras death was ruled by investigators, a suicide. The family disputes the suicide narrative pushed by law enforcement since Donovan was left handed. Though left handed, he took a bullet to the right side of his head, in an incident at a hotel in which 6 people fled the scene after a shouting and an altercation per hotel residents and then, gunfire. One of the alleged individuals on the schene was Dominic De La O who was seen fleeing and admits to being on the scene during an investigation and via a video the family holds.

Back to the Ferguson incident, a criminal complaint filed at district court in Las Cruces it states that at about 2 a.m. on July 15, 2023, Ferguson attempted a traffic stop in Alamogordo on a vehicle occupied by De La O. After the vehicle crashed into a light pole, De La O ran off with a shotgun. Ferguson chased De La O into an alley, where De La O turned around and shot him in the head.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico said De La O fatally shot Ferguson with a 12-gauge shotgun, which had its barrel shortened and stock removed and replaced with a pistol grip.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives learned that a second man — Jonah Apodaca, 31 — provided De La O with the shotgun. Apodaca received a six-year sentence after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in June of 2024.

Prior to the murder of officer Ferguson, according to court documents, Alamogordo police arrested Dominic De La O, twice prior, on previous felony charges. Additionally he was an alledged person of interest not only in the Donovan case, but others according to unnamed sources.

One officer stated at the time of De La O's life conviction, "if you look into his criminal history, it's the same old story. Here is somebody that was very well known to law enforcement.... he was certainly a person of interest in a number of incidents....De La O was clearly a threat to police officers, to the point where he was shot by law enforcement for pulling a gun on them seven months prior to the incident involving officer Ferguson."

De La O now has a life sentence before him in state custody and now an 8 year federal term ahead of him, if he were ever eligible for release from the state of New Mexico. Several local families including the grandfather of Donovan Marquis Contreras have called on their cases to be reopened and reviewed especially in relation to De La O's involvement

De La O is in prison for a long term, but the question remains what other violent crimes did he commit that remain unsolved or misclassified? Families deserve closure and the safety of Alamogordo citizens is paramount. If De La O is tied to other cases the police and DA need to reopen those cases and investigate. Families such as the parents and grandparents of Donovan Marquis Contreras deserve justice.