No plea deal for man charged with shooting woman’s hand

State District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer rejected a plea deal Monday for a man charged with shooting a Glorieta woman in the hand, saying it was too lenient.

The defendant, Jose Javier Medina, went to the woman’s home in August 2016 and began shooting at her son, according to Santa Fe County sheriff ’s investigators. The son ran for cover, and his 41-year-old mother yelled at Medina to leave.

Medina allegedly threatened to shoot the woman, who retaliated with pepper spray and threw a rock at his car’s windshield, a sheriff ’s spokesman said at the time. After that, the sheriff ’s office reported, witnesses saw Medina get out of the vehicle and resume firing.

A round struck the woman in her hand as she dialed 911, the sheriff’s office said.

Medina, 25, was arrested on charges that included attempted murder. But the charges were later downgraded to assault with intent to commit a violent felony, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and shooting at an occupied dwelling without causing great bodily harm.

The plea deal proffered to the judge Monday called for Medina to be sentenced to two years in prison, but he would have been released in about six months because he has been in jail since his arrest.

Sommer said the plea bargain would let Medina off too easy.

If he were convicted on all three counts against him, he would face a maximum sentence of 7½ years in prison.

The judge told the attorneys she’s been told in the past that she questions plea deals too much, and that both sides work hard to arrive at them.

But, Sommer said, “I’m the one responsible as far as the public is concerned,” and on its face the deal is “way too lenient.”

Medina’s attorney, David Foster, reminded the judge that his client has been in jail for 18 months.

“It doesn’t matter. He almost killed people,” Sommer said. She scheduled Medina to stand trial in June. Foster and Deputy District Attorney Michael Nuñez declined to comment on the judge’s ruling.