Man who killed mother out of mental hospital, stepfather says

Justin Quintana, a man with schizophrenia who shot and killed his mother nine years ago in Las Cruces, has been released from a state mental hospital to an Albuquerque halfway house, his stepfather said Tuesday.

“He was freed a week ago last Sunday,” said Patrick Kuchma, the husband of shooting victim Susan Kuchma, a Santa Fe native who was a state police officer when her son killed her in 2007. Patrick Kuchma said he was informed of Quintana’s release by the Las Cruces District Attorney’s Office.

Quintana admitted to the killing but was found incompetent to stand to trial and was placed in the Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M.

Last summer, doctors found Quintana competent to undergo court proceedings, but his attorney and a prosecutor reached a deal under which Quintana was declared not guilty of first-degree murder by reason of insanity and was to be kept in the mental hospital “until he is sane or no longer dangerous.”

A month later, the state Health Department petitioned the state Supreme Court, saying there was no legal basis for keeping an acquitted defendant in the institution indefinitely. The court in January asked the district attorney to seek other options and allowed 15 days for the parties to seek a rehearing.

Las Cruces District Attorney Mark D’Antonio told KOAT-TV Tuesday, “I could not, in good faith, take this case before a jury. Quintana suffered from severe mental illness before the crime, during the crime and after the crime. To do so would be unethical and dishonest.”

Earlier this month, a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez told The New Mexican that releasing Quintana “is a complete injustice for State Police Officer Susan Kuchma. The defendant has been found competent under the law and must be tried for his crimes.”