New Mexico governor's mother, Sonja Lujan, dies at age 82
Sonja Lujan, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s mother and an advocate for children with disabilities, has died of natural causes. Sonja Lujan was 82.
The governor’s office said in a statement Monday that she died on Sunday. The governor told reporters last week that her mother’s health had declined and that she was in hospice care at the governor’s residence in Santa Fe.
The first-term governor described her mom as “truly one of a kind" who fought for the best standards of care and refused to back down when she knew more could be done to help children in need.
“Her tenacity and determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges has inspired me every single day of my adult life," Lujan Grisham said. “She taught me to fight hard — to make sure no one is left behind, that no family is lacking the support they need and deserve.”
Lujan Grisham said that while neither her mother nor father ever ran for political office, they taught her the importance of serving the community.
Her mother raised three children, including Lujan Grisham’s sister, Kimberly, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor as a toddler. Kimberly’s illness eventually resulted in blindness, and Sonja Lujan spent years fighting government and health care bureaucracy to make sure her daughter received the resources she needed, according to the governor's office.
As Kimberly grew up and attended the New Mexico School for the Blind, Sonja drove to Alamogordo every weekend to bring her daughter and her classmates back to Santa Fe to spend their days off with family.
Sonja Lujan went on to serve on the school’s Board of Regents and remained a caregiver for Kimberly until her death in 1985 at age 21.
“She became a dedicated advocate for my sister Kimberly and children with disabilities across the country simply because there was no other choice,” Lujan Grisham said.
Born Sonja Lee Jackson on Jan, 18, 1940, in Brazil, Indiana, she and her family lived abroad at times as her father's career in the U.S. Air Force landed them in Germany and Japan.
In 1959, Sonja married Llewellyn Eugene “Buddy” Lujan. The couple made their first home together in Los Alamos before moving to Santa Fe. Buddy Lujan was a dentist who often provided free care to those who afford to pay, particularly to disabled and underprivileged children. He continued practicing dentistry until his death in 2011 at age 81.
Sonja Lujan spent her final days surrounded by relatives, and the governor said she will be missed dearly.
Sonja Lujan was in an assisted living facility in Albuquerque during the coronavirus pandemic, which was often mentioned by Lujan Grisham. The governor said many of the public health decisions she made at the time were aimed at keeping people like her mother safe.
In a May 2021 post on social media, the governor said that despite the challenges over the past year, she was glad to finally be able to celebrate Mother's Day with her mom in person. She also acknowledged her mother's birthday during her state of the state address in January.
FBI offers reward in vandalizing of Santa Fe petroglyphs
The FBI is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest in the vandalizing of the Cieneguilla Petroglyphs in Santa Fe.
The agency announced a $5,000 reward Monday for any details that could help locate a suspect or suspects.
Authorities say the spray-painted graffiti was discovered on the petroglyphs back in January. The Bureau of Land Management oversees the property where the petroglyphs are.
The petroglyphs, which date between the 13th and 17th centuries, draw visitors yearly. They are considered a precious Native American cultural resource.
Juvenile is accused of fatal shooting at an Albuquerque park
Juvenile is accused of fatal shooting at an Albuquerque park
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting at a southwest Albuquerque park two months ago, according to police.
Police said the teen is facing a murder charge in the Feb. 26 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Vincent Phuc Loc Le at Westgate Community Park.
The suspect was taken into custody Friday and booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center.
The boy's name isn't being released by The Associated Press because he's a juvenile.
Police said the teen is accused of setting up a fight with another person at the park following a high school basketball game.
As a vehicle with four people inside approached the park, police said the teen allegedly fired 17 shots — killing Le and injuring three other people inside the car.
Discovery of radioactive liquid pauses work at US nuke dump
By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
An area at the U.S. government's nuclear waste repository in southeastern New Mexico was evacuated over the weekend after workers handling a shipping container discovered a small amount of radioactive liquid inside it.
There was no indication of airborne contamination and testing of workers' hands and feet turned up no contamination after the discovery was made late Saturday in a bay where containers are processed before being taken underground for disposal, officials said in a statement.
"The event at the site has been secured. There is no risk of radiological release and there is no risk to the public or the environment," plant officials said their most recent statement, issued late Saturday.
It wasn't immediately clear where the liquid came from and which government facility had packed and shipped the waste. Bobby St. John, a spokesman for the contractor that manages the facility for the federal government, said Monday that more information would be provided later.
The repository is the backbone of a multibillion-dollar cleanup program that involves tons of Cold War-era waste from federal labs and defense-related sites around the country.
The waste — remnants of decades of nuclear research and bomb making — typically consists of lab coats, gloves, tools and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements.
Independent federal investigators last month raised concerns about whether cost overruns and missed construction deadlines will continue at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
A multimillion-dollar project is underway at the underground facility to install a new ventilation system so that full operations can resume, following a radiation leak in 2014 that forced the repository's closure for nearly three years and led to major policy overhauls.
The container that caused that release had been inappropriately packed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico.
Operations had to be reduced after the waste plant reopened in 2017 because areas of the facility were contaminated and airflow needed for mining and disposal operations was limited.
It was unclear Monday whether operations had resumed in the area where shipments are processed or what plans were in place to ensure worker safety.
The repository was carved out of an ancient salt formation about a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) below the ground because officials say that the shifting salt will eventually entomb the radioactive waste.
Its current footprint includes eight sections, which the U.S. Energy Department estimates will be filled in 2025.
State regulators are weighing a permit change that some critics have said could lead to expanded repository operations. A decision is expected later this year.
ABQ Pride votes to not let police join parade, festival
Organizers of this year's Albuquerque gay Pride festivities have decided not to let the city's police department participate.
KOB-TV reports all but one member of the ABQ Pride Board approved a motion Sunday to prohibit police from having a parade float or a booth at Pride Fest.
Some cited the history of tensions between police and LGBTQ gatherings. But other members were unsure about ruling police out completely.
Bia Romero, board vice president, was open to talking about having police participate next year.
Board members also noted that the police did not send any representative to their meeting.
Chase Jewell, a police department community ambassador, told the TV station he was surprised by the decision. But he says the department respects the decision and will not "force ourselves" onto Pride events.
He was not able to attend the meeting but said he will be at next month's to talk about public safety plans.
New Mexico senator sues fellow senator over retaliatory acts
New Mexico state Sen. Jacob Candelaria is suing fellow Sen. Mimi Stewart, accusing her of retaliation over his criticism of her leadership.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Candelaria, an independent, believes Stewart, a Democrat, used her authority as president pro tem of the Senate to move his Capitol office and change his seat on the Senate floor.
Candelaria, 35, says he is suing out of principle because "any form of reprisal is unlawful."
A spokesman for Senate Democrats said Stewart, 75, would not comment on the lawsuit.
The relationship between the two senators was already known to be icy. But things escalated after Stewart allowed an investigation of a state administrator accused of making racist remarks but didn't alert all state legislators.
Several staffers under Rachel Gudgel, director of the Legislative Education Study Committee, alleged she made racist comments about Native Americans, belittled a gay man and had a harsh management style.
Only a few other legislative leaders knew an attorney was conducting an investigation into her conduct. But this did not include eight of the 10 lawmakers with direct supervisory authority over her.
Candelaria and others called for her dismissal but Stewart remained a steadfast defender of Gudgel.
Gudgel eventually resigned.
Candelaria wants his lawsuit to go to trial even though he's resigning from the Senate in December in the middle of a third term.
Navajo Nation lawmaker seeks to legalize gay marriage, igniting new debate - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A Navajo Nation lawmaker recently introduced legislation to recognize gay and lesbian marriages on the Navajo Nation, potentially legalizing same-sex marriage in one of the nation’s last, biggest holdouts.
Navajo Council Delegate Eugene Tso sponsored a bill in late March that would repeal or make gender-neutral sections of the Diné Marriage Act, which passed in 2005 and specifically prohibits marriage by members of the same sex in a section that also bans incest and polygamy.
Same-sex Navajo couples who received marriage licenses off the Nation are not recognized to be married on the Nation, current law states.
The Navajo Nation’s estimated 173,000 residents are the biggest group of tribal members in the country whose same-sex couples don’t enjoy the same rights as straight couples. Since the United States Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that states cannot ban same-sex marriage, tribes have reacted differently. Some have gone along and followed their state laws, while others have upheld their bans or didn’t weigh in on the topic.
The Cherokee Nation, for example, which has about 140,000 members living on the Cherokee Nation but reports about 760,000 members nationwide, recently upheld its ban on same-sex marriage. However, the tribe accepts as valid marriage licenses issued outside its boundaries. So upholding that ban has little effect on same-sex couples.
Marriage on the Navajo Nation confers rights to spouses regarding health care and shared property, among other things.
Once Tso proposed the bill, the legislative process on the Nation required a five-day public comment period. After that, the legislation will be heard in four committees. A spokesperson guessed the bill won’t be heard until this summer or fall. Tso didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But the legislation being introduced has renewed a debate on the Navajo Nation and surrounding areas. About 90 people wrote in with their comments between March 22 and 27, and several area church leaders have circulated petitions during services.
Of the public comments, 49 were in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages. Thirty-six were opposed. Four comments were deemed “comments/recommendations.”
A Source New Mexico review of the public comments shows many of the arguments opposed to same-sex marriage cited Biblical teachings. One form letter, along with dozens of attached signatures, asked that Council delegates, “Vote NO to any form of homosexual matter, behavior, attitude pursuant to the Bible, including same sex marriage.”
Comments in favor of same-sex marriage cited the necessity of providing equal rights to individuals regardless of gender or sexuality, and also, in many comments, dismissed the arguments toward banning same-sex marriage as colonialist.
Many comments argued the recognition of “two-spirit” people, who simultaneously embody feminine and masculine spirits, is truer to the Navajo culture and society. The Navajo refer to these people as “Nádleehí,” which generally translates to “one who transforms.”
“Our two-spirited ancestors are credited with the invention of many tools, songs and roles in ceremonies,” one such comment reads, from commenter Curtis Berry. “Our heritage cannot be ignored, it must be remembered. I ask you not only to think of your people today, but for people of our history and support us all.”
On March 26, the Gallup Independent published a full-page advertisement opposed to same-sex marriage. It was paid for by an unnamed group claiming to speak on behalf of 174 Navajo Nation churches, along with a phone number.
Bobby George, pastor at Trinity Navajo Bible Church, answered that phone last week and told Source New Mexico he was a spokesperson on behalf of 174 churches that banded together first when the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the Navajo Nation in 2020. The churches responded by fundraising and donating necessities, he said.
He said he knows that the group of churches all agree with him about same-sex marriage being a sin because he called “enough” of them before the advertisement ran. He would not say how many of the churches he called, and he did not provide a list of the churches within the network as of Sunday night.
“I called enough,” he said. “… The issue here is that (same-sex marriage is) an issue that Christians do not believe in. That’s the bottom line.”
George said he is not familiar with the argument for same-sex marriage based in the history of “two-spirit” people, but he said the Bible’s written prohibition on the homosexual relationships – calling them “an abomination” – is proof enough that the Navajo Nation should not legalize it.
“There’s no written history about how the traditional people really did things and what they believed in,” he said. “It gets passed down from person to person, you know, mouth to mouth.”
George acknowledged that the oral tradition is cherished among Navajo people and is the widely accepted practice for transferring knowledge and wisdom between generations. But he said advocates for same-sex marriage are using that to fake a justification for legalizing marriage now.
Since the advertisement ran, George said he’s gotten numerous phone calls from those who agree with his stance, including some outside Christian groups, though none he said he was familiar with.
While Tso’s bill would require tribal government to accept same-sex marriage, it also keeps in place traditional marriage ceremonies in hogans between men and women.
“Traditional Navajo society places a great importance upon the institution of marriage and believes the elaborate ritual of marrying using the traditional method is believed to be blessed by the ‘Holy People’,” Tso writes in the legislation.
Despite not allowing same-sex marriage, the Navajo tribal government has allowed for Pride celebrations and enacted the “Equality Act,” which makes discrimination against those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Heat, wind hit New Mexico as crews battle blazes - Associated Press, KOB-TV
Warnings that strong winds and hot and dry weather could produce dangerous wildfires blanketed most of New Mexico on Saturday as crews continued to battle at least two blazes that started as prescribed burns but then got out of hand.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings and fire weather watches that extended into Monday evening for the entire state except for snow-covered areas in higher elevations.
In southeastern New Mexico, air tankers assisted crews from at least six agencies battling a fire that had burned 3 square miles (7.7 square kilometers) of mostly grassland along the Pecos River southeast of Roswell as of Saturday and was contained around 50% of its perimeter, officials said in a statement.
The federal Bureau of Land Management said the fire was started Thursday as a prescribed burn to clear potential fire fuel but was declared a wildfire that afternoon after it grew outside the planned boundary due to a wind whirl, a small rotating wind storm generated by a fire's extreme heat.
The fire damaged power lines and threatened homes at times, officials said.
"We didn't actually have to evacuate. We did tell people to be ready, so they were up and ready," Dexter Fire Chief Justin Powell told KOB-TV. "It did burn right up to some people's houses, right beside them but we did keep it off them as much as we could."
In northern New Mexico, crews battled a wildfire declared Wednesday after winds caused spot fires that took a prescribed burn outside its planned area. The fire is at the base of a peak in the Santa Fe National Forest about 12 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
A higher-level multi agency incident management team on Monday will begin taking over command of the firefighting effort that included at least five ground crews aided by helicopters, fire officials said Saturday.
No structure damage was reported but officials said crews were working to keep the fire out of a municipal watershed. The fire burned 350 acres as of late Friday and was burning toward a wilderness area.
Ted Turner land in New Mexico conserved in US military deal - By Adrian Hedden Carlsbad Current-Argus
Habitat for about a million bats will be protected from human impacts through a deal between a nonprofit and the federal government.
About 315,000 acres of southern New Mexico land owned by billionaire media tycoon Ted Turner were protected from development in a partnership between the U.S. Department of Defense and New Mexico Land Conservancy, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.
The deal saw a conservation easement added to Armendaris Ranch, owned by Turner, due to perceived cultural significance and biological diversity on the land in Sierra and Socorro counties.
The ranch land supports more than 500 vertebrate species, per a report from the Land Conservancy, including multiple listed for federal and state protections.
It also contains the Fra Cristobal Mountain Range, home to 230 desert bighorn sheep, and lava fields that include the Jornada cave system that houses bats of multiple species.
"This land is laden with important and unique natural and cultural resources, and the opportunity to permanently protect a property with conservation values of this magnitude was at the heart of our organization's decision to tackle this landscape-scale project," said Ron Troy, southern New Mexico program manager with the Land Conservancy.
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WHAT IS THE LOCATION AND HISTORY OF ARMENDARIS RANCH?
Armendaris Ranch sits along the Rio Grande, from the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge to the north and stretches about 50 miles south to Elephant Butte Lake near Truth or Consequences.
It spans east from there through the Fra Cristobal Mountains to the San Andres Mountains and White Sands Missile Range.
Ancient footprints were discovered in the ranch about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from White Sands, believed to date back 20,000 years.
The Conservancy reported evidence of 10 Indigenous cultural periods, including 11,000-year Clovis peoples, pre-Columbian rock art, the remains of Puebloan, Mimbres, Navajo and Apache groups.
In modern history, the land contains a section of El Camino Real, a network of roads built by colonial Spain also known as the King's Highway, and the site of the largest Civil War battle fought in the Southwest known as Valverde.
There are 20 abandoned town sites on the land, per the Conservancy, and former transportation routes between Los Alamos and the Trinity Site used during the Manhattan Project that saw the first nuclear weapons tested in New Mexico.
The easement was intended to protect all of the historic and cultural significance of the land by restricting most development activities.
For the DOD, blocking development on the ranch was useful as it contains a part of the western buffer for White Sands Missile Range.
Setting aside the land was partially funded by the department's Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program, which was created to mitigate land conflicts near military installations and conserve wildlife to avoid restrictions that could inhibit missions.
The REPI program conserved 830,000 acres (3,359 square kilometers) since its inception in 2002, and the Armendaris Ranch easement was the largest in the program's history, almost doubling the conserved land from 340,000 acres on 115 easements to 655,000 acres.
"The permanent protection of this land presented a unique and timely convergence of interests between the various partners involved," said Scott Wilber, Conservancy executive director. "This is truly a win-win-win project for wildlife, the people of New Mexico and our national security."
Brian Knight, team manager with the U.S. Army said for White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) the project would allow the facility to expand its airspace, as part of the easement is in a region known as the Western Call Up Area where officials at the missile range can extend its airspace as needed for testing and other activities.
"Completion of this historic project has been a very high priority for White Sands Missile Range," Knight said. "Working with our neighbors to create compatible land uses and minimize any encroachment to military airspace will sustain the unique capabilities that make WSMR the premier test and evaluation range in the country."
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PRESIDENT BIDEN, GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM SEEK TO CONSERVE PUBLIC LAND
Land conservation was also a main priority for the state of New Mexico and federal government in recent months.
President Joe Biden and the U.S. Department of the Interior pushed in recent months a "30x30" plan that would see 30% of federal public land conserved by 2030, also known as the "America the Beautiful Initiative."
In Biden's budget request for Fiscal Year 2023, he called for an $18 billion budget at Interior, an increase of $2.9 billion.
About $4.9 billion of that request would go to the 30x30 initiative, per an Interior report, to support local conservation projects.
"President Biden has proposed an important blueprint for our country's future that reflects the importance of science, equity and collaboration in carrying out Interior's important missions," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
And last year, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order to set a similar goal of conserving state-owned land through the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.
"Today we promote a broad view of conservation that reflects the importance of traditional resource protection, access for outdoor recreation, contributions of working lands, and tribal sovereignty and self-determination," Lujan Grisham said upon announcing the order. "We have set the wheels in motion to conserve our state's incredible natural resources and ensure that New Mexico remains, forever, the Land of Enchantment."
New Mexico dairies urged to seek aid due to contamination - Associated Press
Dairy farmers can seek reimbursement from the federal government for cows contaminated by chemicals that have leached into the groundwater around an Air Force base in eastern New Mexico.
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján on Friday commended a recent rule change by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that created a pathway for farmers to receive payments through the Dairy Indemnity Payment Program. Previously, farmers were able to get payments for lost milk production but could not get paid for their cows.
Luján said in a statement that New Mexico farmers and ranchers are critical contributors to the state's economy and that many producers have been brought to the verge of bankruptcy due to inaction and because programs that were designed to provide a safety were not working.
"Beyond the moral imperative of the federal government providing just compensation, this announcement is part of a broader effort to support the dairy industry and rural communities," he said.
At one dairy near Cannon, Luján's office said an estimated 5,200 cows were impacted and about 2,000 of the animals have died.
New Mexico sued the Air Force in 2019 over PFAS contamination at Cannon and at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico. The state argued that the federal government had a responsibility to clean up plumes of toxic chemicals left behind by past military firefighting activities.
The synthetic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances also are used in products ranging from cookware to carpets and have been increasingly showing up in drinking water systems, wells and food. They have been associated with health problems including cancer and reduced birth weight.
They often are referred to as "forever chemicals" because they do not easily degrade and can remain in the body for years.
Last year, the EPA announced a new strategy to regulate them.
In New Mexico, the Air Force began installing monitoring wells in March to determine the extent of "forever chemicals" in and around Cannon, which is located near the community of Clovis. The locations for the wells were determined following an extensive effort that involved the collection of soil and groundwater samples.
Air Force officials said the data collected from the wells will help determine potential future full-scale response efforts.
Wedding dress made from parachute goes to New Mexico museum - By Leah Romero Las Cruces Sun-News
When Hazel Ewing made her daughter a wedding dress in the 1940s, she likely wasn't thinking it would one day end up on display in a museum.
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum recently had a special dress donated to their collections — a white silk wedding dress handmade from a World War II surplus parachute. The dress was donated by the Cade family,the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.
Breezy Cade explained that his parents, Anna Beth "Ann" and Baylus Cade Jr. were married in 1947 in Lordsburg. Ann grew up on a remote ranch south of Lordsburg and Baylus was from Las Cruces. The two met while attending New Mexico State University. Baylus was a singer and acted in productions while Ann played piano accompaniment.
Baylus eventually asked Ann to marry him at El Patio in Mesilla, which was a restaurant at the time.
When they decided to get married, Ann's mother, Hazel, got to work on the dress. Breezy said his mother's family did not have a lot of money. They were ranchers who largely lived hand to mouth. However, WWII had recently ended, and surplus military supplies were available for purchase. Hazel bought an unused white silk parachute, chose a pattern and made her daughter's dress at home on a Singer treadle sewing machine.
"It was a nice dress. It was simple, but it was nice," Breezy said. "They got married at a little church in Lordsburg, so it was kind of a country wedding so there was no big hoopla about the whole thing."
A news release from the museum explained that limited resources were common during WWII and in the following years. Fabric was also expensive. Women improvising with parachute silk or nylon for their wedding dresses became popular.
The Cades married in September 1947 when Ann was 22 and Baylus was 28. They had four children — Breezy, Beverly, Helen and Patrick. The dress was packed away and stored until it was handed down to Beverly.
The couple spent their lives in Las Cruces. Ann had lupus and passed away in 1970. Baylus, who worked as an accountant, died in 1984. The dress remained in storage until the 1990s, after Beverly passed. Breezy said his sister's husband distributed her belongings back to the family and the wedding dress was sent to Helen.
In 1997, Breezy's daughter, Mariah, chose to wear her grandmother's dress for her own ceremony. It had worn some over the years and needed a bit of sprucing up so the before the wedding, the fabric was restored and alterations were made. After the ceremony, the dress was professionally sealed and returned to storage.
Breezy said the family didn't think any other children or grandchildren would want to wear the dress so they looked for other options than just keeping it in a box.
"It's old fashioned and we didn't think anybody was going to want to use it again. So, we talked it over and decided to see if the museum was interested in it," Breezy said. "We're really happy that it's going to be taken care of properly and that other people can see it. And see how people did stuff on ranches back in the day."
Holly Radke, the Farm & Ranch Museum's curator of collections, said the wedding dress makes a "wonderful addition" to the museum's textile collection.
"But to top that off, the history of the dress, made from a World War II parachute on a ranch in New Mexico. What a great story," she said.
Ann Cade's wedding dress will now be stored in the museum's Collection's Room, which features over 11,000 historical items.
Juvenile lifer seeks reprieve amid broader push for leniency - By Felicia Fonseca Associated Press
Shortly after Riley Briones Jr. arrived in federal prison, he cut his long, braided hair in a symbolic death of his old self.
As a leader of a violent gang and just shy of 18, Briones drove the getaway car in a robbery turned deadly on the Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Community outside Phoenix in 1994. He was convicted of murder and given a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
In prison, he has been baptized a Christian, ministers to other inmates who call him Brother Briones, got his GED and has a spotless disciplinary record, his attorneys say in their latest bid to get the now 45-year-old's sentence cut short.
"He's clearly on the side of the line where he should be walking free," said his attorney, Easha Anand.
The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for that possibility with a 2012 ruling that said only the rare, irredeemable juvenile offender should serve life in prison. Over the past decade, most of the 39 defendants in federal cases who received that sentence have gotten a reprieve and are serving far fewer years behind bars.
Meanwhile, more than 60 legal experts and scholars have asked the federal government to cap sentences for juvenile offenders at 30 years, create a committee to review life sentences in the future and reconsider its stance in Briones' case.
But the move toward greater leniency has been gradual and not without resistance.
Briones is among those whose life sentences have been upheld in recent years, though he still has another chance.
Prosecutors in his case have opposed a reduced term. They argue despite Briones' improvements, he minimized his role in the gang and its crimes that terrorized Salt River amid an explosion of gang violence on Native American reservations in the 1990s.
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Briones began serving prison time in 1997 for the death of Brian Patrick Lindsay, a Northern Arizona University honors student who was home for the summer and had picked up a solo shift at a Subway sandwich shop.
Briones drove four others from the notorious "Eastside Crips Rolling 30s" gang to the restaurant on May 15, 1994, one of whom was armed with a 9 mm pistol, according to court documents. Lindsay was preparing food they ordered when one of the gang members went outside to talk to Briones, came back inside and suddenly shot Lindsay in the face. He pumped more bullets into Lindsay as he lay bleeding on the floor.
They had planned the robbery to get cash for guns, prosecutors wrote in court documents. They weren't able to open the cash register but took a bank bag with $100 and the food the dying clerk had prepared.
Briones instructed another gang member to kill a maintenance man whom they saw earlier clearing the sidewalk, but they couldn't find him, court documents state.
Prosecutors said the murder was the most egregious of the violent crimes that Briones helped plot and carry out on the reservation about 15 miles from Phoenix. But there were others that demonstrated a "murderous, unrepentant and unapologetic attitude," prosecutors said.
The gang members set diversionary fires while they firebombed a rival's house and did drive-by shootings. They stole cars and firearms to carry out the crimes. They also hatched plans to kill a tribal judge, federal prosecutors and tribal police investigators but didn't follow through, according to court documents.
Briones was arrested at his home in 1995. Along with murder, he was convicted of arson, tampering with a witness and assault with a dangerous weapon. Three of his co-defendants were sentenced to life. One cooperated with prosecutors and received a lesser term.
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Bennit Hayes can't imagine that version of Briones, whom he served time with at the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. Hayes said he learned about Sunday chapel services and a Bible study group that gathered on the prison yard, and Briones welcomed him with a big smile and a hug.
Hayes said he respected Briones because he never talked over others, he studied intently, and he worked hard and encouraged others to lead better lives. Briones prayed for anyone who asked, Hayes said.
"God blessed me not only to have the camaraderie and the brotherhood but to see genuine change," said Hayes, whose sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2016. "He was the light in the candle that I put up against everything else going forward."
By then, Briones had cut his hair that fell past his waist, abstained from food for 40 days and surrendered to God, said his wife, Carmen Briones.
"Riley made that decision," said Carmen Briones, who is enrolled in Pascua Yaqui. "He said, 'I have to have a different life. I can't have the same life I had before.'"
The couple met while they were teenagers attending a youth camp at Arizona State University. They had a daughter who is now 30 and got married in 1999 while Briones, who is San Carlos Apache and Salt River Pima-Maricopa, was in prison.
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Briones' case became eligible for resentencing after the Supreme Court's 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama. It was part of a series of cases in which the court found minors should be treated differently from adults, partly because of a lack of maturity. The court previously eliminated the death penalty for juveniles and barred life-without-parole sentences for juveniles except in cases of murder.
A handful of the defendants in the 39 federal cases — most of whom are minorities — have been released from prison.
The Feb. 17 letter seeking reform from the Justice Department pointed to statistics that show the median sentence for adults convicted of murder in the federal system is 20 years — nearly half the median for the juvenile offenders.
"Taking a life is really, really serious, and I don't belittle that at all," said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center, one of the signatories. "But a full life in prison when you're a juvenile and you're talking about 40, 50, 60 years in prison is exceedingly excessive probably in almost every case and not consistent with typical sentences for homicides, even adults."
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
A decision in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 gave Briones an opportunity to plead again before a district court judge to lower his sentence. But before he got the chance, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hold the case until it decided another one, Jones v. Mississippi, meant to clarify rulings in two other cases regarding juvenile offenders.
From there, Briones' case went back to the 9th Circuit.
A three-judge panel ruled against Briones, and now his attorneys are asking the full court to reconsider. The federal government's response is due in May.
The California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a victims rights group, said changes in the law that continually allow juvenile offenders to get another shot at freedom are damaging for the families, communities and the criminal justice system.
"Some of these crimes are just very horrible, and the impacts on the families are substantial, and they never go away," said the group's president, Michael Rushford.
The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth has long argued the changes a person makes once they've entered prison should matter, and juvenile offenders should be able to live as adults outside prison walls.
"If the facts of the crime are always going to be the overpowering force, then Miller isn't going to be meaningfully interpreted to outweigh all this positive growth," said Rebecca Turner, who tracks the federal cases for the group.
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The federal court in Arizona has resentenced more of the juvenile offenders to life in prison than any other state. Texas has two juvenile offenders who are serving life but weren't able to be resentenced because of how courts interpreted Miller v. Alabama. South Carolina resentenced one inmate to life.
All three federal cases in Arizona were from Native American reservations, where the federal government has jurisdiction when the suspect, victim or both are Native American for a set of major crimes, including homicide. The penalties, in general, are stricter than if the crimes happened off the reservation and the cases ended up in state court.
Branden Pete, who is Navajo, got a mandatory life sentence for raping and then killing a woman by throwing rocks at her head on the Navajo Nation in 2002. A judge considered his dysfunctional upbringing, substance abuse issues, prison disciplinary record and the brutality of the crime in resentencing him to 54 years in prison in 2017.
It's the third-longest resentence among defendants, not including those whose life sentences were reaffirmed or didn't get a chance to plead for less time. The resentences range from 15 years to 70 years.
The other Arizona defendant, Johnny Orsinger, is serving life for the deaths of four people in two incidents when he was 16. Orsinger, who is Ute and Mexican, also committed the crimes on the Navajo Nation, which spans parts of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. A co-defendant in one of the cases, Lezmond Mitchell, was executed in 2020. He was the only Native American on federal death row at the time.
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Prosecutors in Briones' case acknowledged he's changed for the better and expressed remorse but argued he should remain imprisoned for life because he hasn't accepted responsibility for Lindsay's death and minimized his role as a founder and leader of the gang that spanned other tribal reservations.
The U.S. District Court judge who resentenced Briones in 2016 said he considered Briones' troubled childhood that included abuse at the hands of his father — with whom the gang consulted — along with Briones' alcohol and drug use, and immaturity. He also noted Briones had been a model inmate.
"However, some decisions have lifelong consequences," the judge wrote.
The trial for Briones and his co-defendants was the first prosecution in Indian Country under a federal law meant to enhance sentencing for organized crime. During the trial, prosecutors played the 911 recording in which Lindsay told dispatchers through a mouthful of blood that he had been shot. His parents were in the courtroom.
"I can still almost hear that tape," Paul Charlton, one of the prosecutors at the time, recently told The Associated Press. "And if you had been through that trial, if you had seen the callous and remorseless way in which these individuals faced the evidence against them and their lack of remorse at that time, most people would be as I remain today, unsympathetic to Mr. Briones' arguments."
The Salt River Police Department declined to comment. Emails and phone messages left at a number listed for Lindsay's parents were not returned.
In a letter to the court during Briones' 2016 resentencing, Sharyn and Brian Lindsay said the passing of time hadn't made their lives easier or mended their hearts.
"Isn't a lifetime without our son enough without having to go through another court proceeding?" they wrote.
They established an engineering scholarship in their son's name at Northern Arizona University.
Briones now is at the federal prison in metropolitan Phoenix, about a 50 minute drive from Carmen Briones' home on the Salt River reservation. She hasn't seen him since last May because of pandemic restrictions, but they keep in contact through email and phone calls.
She said releasing Riley Briones from prison would mean they could be a family in a more meaningful way. But whatever the 9th Circuit decides won't change who her husband has become, she said.
"He's still going to continue wherever he's at to minister, to mentor, to be a positive example and give guidance to those who he has contact with," she said. "We've had enough appeals come and go that ... wisdom would tell you just pray and see what happens."
Juvenile is accused of fatal shooting at an Albuquerque park - Associated Press
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting at a southwest Albuquerque park two months ago, according to police.
Police said the teen is facing a murder charge in the Feb. 26 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Vincent Phuc Loc Le at Westgate Community Park.
The suspect was taken into custody Friday and booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center.
The boy's name isn't being released by The Associated Press because he's a juvenile.
Police said the teen is accused of setting up a fight with another person at the park following a high school basketball game.
As a vehicle with four people inside approached the park, police said the teen allegedly fired 17 shots — killing Le and injuring three other people inside the car.