Appeals court reverses convictions in kidnapping and terrorism case involving 3-year-old boy's death
– By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
A federal appeals court has vacated kidnapping convictions in a case involving the death of a 3-year-old boy who went missing from Georgia in 2017 and later turned up dead at a squalid compound in New Mexico.
The boy's father and other family members were sentenced to life in prison in 2024 after jurors convicted them in what prosecutors described as a "sick end-of-times scheme."
A panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a decision issued Tuesday that there was no evidence of a federal kidnapping crime when the family took the boy, noting that no court order or state law made it illegal for Siraj Ibn Wahhaj to take his son.
The group already was living in New Mexico when a Georgia juvenile court issued a pickup order for the boy after his mother petitioned for emergency custody. The appellate panel took issue with jury instructions that implied the mother's lack of consent could satisfy the unlawfulness element under the federal kidnapping statute.
"This instructional error was not harmless," the panel wrote. "Had the court correctly instructed on the law, the jury couldn't have found unlawfulness based on the government's evidence."
The family members can't be retried on the kidnapping charges, the panel ruled.
The appeals panel also vacated convictions stemming from accusations that Wahhaj and his brother-in-law were preparing for attacks against the government. It said the two men, who had represented themselves during the trial, had been excluded from bench conferences with the judge about notes jurors had sent during deliberations.
The court remanded that part of the case back to the district court, clearing the way for new trials for the men if prosecutors opt to pursue the case.
"What happened at the Taos compound was horrific. We are reviewing the case and assessing what further action may be appropriate," the U.S. attorney's office for the district of New Mexico wrote in an email Wednesday.
During the three-week trial in 2023, the defendants suggested that the case was the product of "government overreach" and that they were targeted because they are Muslim.
A fifth defendant — Jany Leveille, a Haitian national — avoided the trial by pleading guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and being in possession of a firearm while unlawfully in the United States. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged that it was under Leveille's instruction that the family fled Georgia with the boy, ending up in a remote stretch of the high desert where they conducted firearms and tactical training to prepare for attacks against the government. Prosecutors said it was tied to a belief that the boy would be resurrected and then instruct the family which corrupt government and private institutions needed to be eliminated.
In a complex case that took years to get to trial, jurors heard weeks of testimony from children who had lived with their parents at the compound, other family members, firearms experts, doctors and forensic technicians.
Authorities raided the compound in 2018, finding 11 children and dismal living conditions. They also found 11 firearms and ammunition that were used at a makeshift shooting range on the property near the Colorado state line.
The remains of Wahhaj's son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, were found in an underground tunnel at the compound. Testimony indicated that the boy died just weeks after arriving in New Mexico and that his body was kept for months with Leveille promising the others he would be resurrected.
An exact cause of death was never determined amid accusations that the boy, who had frequent seizures, had been deprived of crucial medication.
DHS doubles downs on border wells, waives state laws
– Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
The Department of Homeland Security doubled down last week on pumping groundwater near New Mexico’s southern border to support border wall construction.
In a Federal Register notice, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin determined the agency would waive state laws and administrative code, including New Mexico’s water code, citing “the critical importance of border security.”
The state is suing the federal government and private contractors for drilling several wells in the Hachita, Mimbres and Lower Rio Grande basins, plus “unpermitted diversions from a livestock well, switching of meters in violation of permit conditions, well-plugging in the absence of a legally mandated plugging plan, and collapsed boreholes that were either plugged without a plugging plan or left exposed.”
Border-area ranchers raised alerts earlier this year about wells being drilled without permits on behalf of Customs and Border Protection, whereas with previous border wall construction the government had purchased water from local water rights holders or trucked in supplies from elsewhere. Without hydrological studies, permits or disclosures of how much water would be pumped, ranchers objected to potential harms for local supplies sustaining residences and agricultural operations.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Two dead after pipeline fire in Lea County
– Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
The Lea County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an oilfield fire west of Eunice that killed two people Tuesday.
Deputies responded to a call about an industrial accident involving a pipeline fire in an oilfield near N.M. 176 and Bootleg Road around 1 p.m., the sheriff’s office said in a social media post. When they arrived, they found two people dead at the scene.
“This incident remains an active investigation and is believed to be an isolated incident,” the post states.
The sheriff’s office has not released the names of the two people who were killed. The investigation is ongoing.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Public advocacy staff for New Mexico utility regulator seek probe into PNM over high power bills
– Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
Staff for the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission are asking commissioners to authorize a formal investigation into the state’s largest electric provider after widespread customer complaints of exceedingly expensive bills.
In a five-page filing to the commission Tuesday, staffers on the entity’s Public Interest Advocacy team wrote that electric provider PNM in July began estimating residential customer bills, rather than obtaining readings from meters, in the Alamogordo and Ruidoso areas because of a meter reader shortage. The practice quickly spread statewide, they wrote.
The commission subsequently held a September town hall meeting in Alamogordo, where some residents complained that their monthly bills had gone as high as $1,700. Last month, the New Mexico Department of Justice announced it had received several complaints from residents across the state who saw their monthly bills skyrocket from their usual range of $150 to $200.
Staffers wrote in the Tuesday filing that they intend to investigate what caused the issue, whether PNM complied with applicable laws and regulatory requirements and whether there are regulatory measures available to prevent a situation like this from happening again.
They wrote that they would test meters in Alamogordo and Ruidoso, review PNM’s billing data and write monthly updates and a public report with their findings and recommended next steps.
In a statement to Source NM, PNM spokesperson Eric Chavez said the company stands ready to provide information to utility regulators.
“PNM understands the concerns surrounding this summer’s meter reading and billing issues and remains committed to supporting affected customers,” Chavez said. “We welcome the opportunity to provide the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission with information about what occurred, how customers were affected and the actions PNM has taken in response.”
The announcement comes nearly a month after New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sent a letter to Don Tarry, the CEO of PNM and its parent company, informing him that residents across the state had filed complaints with the New Mexico Department of Justice over shockingly high PNM bills.
In his Sept. 9 letter, Torrez included complaints several residents had sent to his office, including one who wrote that a relative’s bill had suddenly jumped from $150 to $766 in one month. Another, written by an Otero County married couple, said that PNM didn’t read their meter in July.
“Though we completely understand staffing issues, an electric bill of over $1,000, when we have not had one over $200 in the last year, is absurd,” they wrote. “We cannot get any answers from PNM, even after asking to see usage patterns and asking about meter modifications. This is highly irregular, and we should not have to pay over a thousand dollars when PNM will not provide facts.”
City of Raton, Colfax County take opposite stands on data center moratoriums
- Mike Easterling, Santa Fe New Mexican
The City of Raton in northern New Mexico has declined to implement a datacenter moratorium, going against the grain of the larger county. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that on September 22 the Raton City Commission members voted 3-2 to strike down the one-year moratorium proposal.
This is despite a Colfax County moratorium that bans datacenter development in unincorporated areas, and after Raton residents presented the commission with a petition of over 500 signatures supporting a town moratorium.
Earlier this year Denver-based company Atterix started a feasibility study for a data center in Raton, the results of which haven’t been released yet.
Residents in favor of a one-year moratorium say implementing it would not be a permanent ban on data centers and would allow time for community members to become informed and make a collective decision.
The Mayor of Raton, who is on the City Commission, voted against the moratorium, but said she was in favor of implementing strong guardrails for data centers.
