Court affirms extended stay for mentally ill defendants

The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a district judge’s ruling to extend the criminal commitment of Ricky Quintana, a Las Vegas, N.M., man accused of brutally murdering his roommate in 2003.

Over the years, psychiatrists have told different judges in the case that Quintana, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, would not be able to stand trial because of his mental illness. Instead, he was committed to the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas.

In 2017, a district judge found Quintana still presented a danger to the community and extended his commitment at the mental institution by five years. In affirming the judge’s decision, the Supreme Court ruled defendants who are found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial and dangerous can be ordered to spend additional time at a mental institution because of aggravating circumstances.

Quintana is accused of killing and mutilating 47-year-old Michael Grube at a home the two men shared in Las Vegas. The district judge found the “brutality and viciousness” of the murder, in addition to concerns that Quintana would not take his medication and his psychosis might return, enough to warrant an extension of his commitment at the mental institution.

There is no “maximum sentence” defined in the New Mexico Mental Illness and Competency Code, but defendants can receive the maximum sentence that they could have received had they been mentally competent to stand trial.

The “statutory language in question manifests clear policy underpinnings. ‘Maximum sentence,’ which contemplates aggravation, is consistent with legislative intent for the duration of a term of commitment to be as long as constitutionally permissible,” the court ruled.

When defendants are admitted to an institution, their competency and dangerousness must be reviewed every two years, according to a news release from the Administrative Office of the Courts.