El Rito Media News Service

A sweeping measure to crack down on crime in New Mexico that could end up being one of the defining bills of this year’s session passed the state House on Saturday.

House Bill 8 consists of six originally separate bills, including changing criminal competency procedures and measures to crack down on fentanyl trafficking, shooting threats, vehicle theft and drunken driving. It now heads to the Senate, with about a week until the session’s halfway point and the Legislature’s self-imposed deadline to get an omnibus anti-crime package to the governor’s desk. On Friday, the Senate passed a major overhaul of the state’s behavioral health care system, another measure lawmakers had promised to get to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in the first 30 days.

Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a major player in crafting the package, emphasized its bipartisan nature, with several of the bills that were wrapped into it having had co-sponsors from both parties.

“I feel very good about the process we used … in preparing this package,” Chandler said. “I felt and feel and continue to feel it was done of the basis of collaboration” between lawmakers, law enforcement and the public.

“It represents a well-vetted group of bills,” she added.

Despite the bipartisan nature of some of the components, hours of debate preceded the final vote as Democrats shot down Republican attempts to make changes to the package. The House gaveled in a little after 2 p.m., passing the bill by a 48-20 vote four hours later.

Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, a prosecutor who has been sponsoring many of the Republicans’ tough-on-crime bills this year, offered a substitute measure that would have made some changes to the fentanyl provisions and added tougher penalties for some youthful offenders and for felons found in possession of firearms. That last provision, she said, was requested by Lujan Grisham, whose office included that bill Friday on a list of measures she would like to see the Legislature pass in addition to the ones included in the crime package.

Reeb’s proposed substitute also would have removed the increased penalties for shooting threats — which originated as House Bill 31, a bill Reeb had co-sponsored — and for possession of a “Glock switch,” or a device to convert a semiautomatic firearm into a fully automatic. While this is already illegal under federal law, it is not currently a state crime. Reeb said she worried about people who possess a “Glock switch” but who might not have it with a gun being charged with a felony.

“I felt the language needed to be tighter,” Reeb said. “It needed to mirror federal law more and it has not.”

Rep. Nicole Chavez, R-Albuquerque, who before being elected last year was an anti-crime advocate for years after the murder of her 17-year-old son, argued passionately for cracking down on juvenile crime.

“When we leave juvenile crime out of this package we send a dangerous message that accountability has an age limit, and that is not true,” Chavez said. “Every day, families are shattered by young offenders taking lives such as my son’s.”

The House ended up tabling Reeb’s proposed substitute on a 42-26 party-line vote. Reeb then tried to add just the juvenile justice provisions to the bill, which failed 41-27.

The bill would expand the list of offenses for which a defendant could be criminally committed, authorize district attorneys or the state attorney general to file petitions for assisted outpatient treatment and let courts authorize the use of competency evaluation reports in involuntary commitment proceedings. Chandler said people have gotten frustrated with people charged with low-level crimes having the charges dismissed due to them being deemed not competent.

“We recognized that that was a very old law,” Chandler said. “It needed work, and throughout the summer … [the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee] held many meetings on these issues.”

Lawmakers also praised the importance of the other provisions. Rep. Cynthia Borrego, D-Albuquerque, cited the shooting deaths last year of state police Officer Justin Hare, whose killer was driving a stolen car, and of of 83-year-old Gordon Wilson as demonstrating the importance of raising penalties for repeat vehicle theft. Police say Wilson’s accused killer stole his SUV after shooting him to death in the parking lot of the Best Buy store on Zafarano Drive in Santa Fe.

“I mention these situations and these instances because car theft is a situation and a crime that often leads to more heinous crimes,” Borrego said.

Other provisions of the bill would make it a felony to have a “Glock switch,” make it easier for police to get a blood draw in misdemeanor DWI cases and increase penalties for fentanyl trafficking. And, it would elevate making a shooting threat from a misdemeanor to a felony. Rep. Joy Garratt, D-Albuquerque, said shooting threats are extremely disruptive and spread fear even when no shooting occurs.

“It’ll assist law enforcement in protecting schools and our schoolchildren and our neighbors in public places,” she said.