State lawmakers must close our revolving door of justice
People in Albuquerque don’t feel safe. Our quality of life is hard to maintain when our neighborhoods are under siege. Devin Munford was already a repeat offender when he was arrested for shooting out a car window with a gun stolen from the Rio Rancho Police Department. The prosecutor wanted him held in jail until his trial, but the Judge had other ideas. He put Munford on pretrial release, meaning he could go home but needed to wear an ankle monitor.
That ankle monitor didn’t stop Munford from violating the conditions of his release 113 times. With no consequences. None.
In 2021, Munford went to Devon Heyborne’s front door and shot and killed him – while wearing his ankle monitor on pretrial release.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Munford continued to commit violent felonies after murdering Heyborne — all while still wearing his GPS monitor. He threatened a woman who asked him to move his car and fired a shot above the woman’s head. He then robbed a 7-Eleven at gunpoint.
Munford was convicted of murder just a few months ago and faces sentencing this Tuesday.
I spoke to Devon Heyborne’s mother, Angel Alire, recently.
She told me, “Nothing will bring my son back, but I think we can change the catch and release system and spare another family the heartache we’ve endured.”
New Mexicans are sick and tired of crime and the revolving door of justice we’ve seen in the last few years. I heard this time and time again as I campaigned for this job as your Albuquerque city councilor.
In the next 30 days, the New Mexico state Legislature has an opportunity to put a wedge in the revolving door of justice. As long as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham allows it, there will be several bills that will try to do just that. We need to encourage our legislators to act.
Don’t listen to those who would tell you this isn’t a problem.
In 2022, the Administrative Office of the Courts and UNM presented pretrial release data to the state Legislative Finance Committee.
They identified 3,595 cases from Oct. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, where the defendant was not detained pretrial and was instead released under various levels of pretrial supervision.
Across the four judicial districts included in the study — which did NOT include Bernalillo County:
• Nearly 1 out of every 4 released defendants did not show up for a court hearing.
• On average, 13 released defendants per week were charged with committing a new crime while out of jail pretrial and under supervision.
• Five released defendants per week were charged with committing a new violent crime while awaiting trial.
The judicial districts covered in that study were the 11th (San Juan and McKinley counties), 13th (Cibola, Valencia and Sandoval counties), 5th (Hidalgo, Grant, and Luna counties) and 3rd (Doña Ana) judicial districts.
Data about Bernalillo County’s pretrial release program were released in late 2021 and showed similar results.
In Bernalillo County, the UNM/AOC evaluation showed that around 13 times per week, a released defendant is arrested for committing a new crime, with more than 6 in 10 of these new crimes being felony offenses.
We have a problem. And the state Legislature holds the keys to at least one serious solution. In past years, legislation to address pretrial release has never gotten out of committee to see an up or down vote on the floor of both the state Senate and the state House.
I hope that this year is different.
Moms like Angel Alire, and hundreds of other victims of crime and their loved ones, are waiting for us to act.
People want to see their elected officials, at all levels, do everything we can to stop the violent crime we’ve seen take over our streets and seep into our neighborhoods. Let 2024 be the year that we turn the tide and start to make our streets and communities safer.