Deadly hit-and-run in New Mexico brings juvenile justice challenges into focus

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Deadly hit-and-run in New Mexico brings juvenile justice challenges into focus

2025-03-25 04:43 Last Updated At：04:51

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Behind the wheel of the stolen car was a 12-year-old boy. In the front passenger seat was a boy who just days earlier had marked his 11th birthday. He was waving a handgun as a 15-year-old boy in the backseat recorded video of what police described as a deliberate hit-and-run.

A voice believed to be the 15-year-old’s says, “Just bump him, brah.” The driver asks, “Like bump him?” The rear passenger responds, “Yeah, just bump him. Go like … 15 … 20.”

The car smashed into a bicyclist on his way to work. The windshield shattered and the car sped away in the predawn hours that May morning.

Months passed with no arrests. Then in February a video of the deadly crash surfaced on social media. Remarkably it led police back to an 11-year-old who last June was arrested and placed in custody for a series of break-ins and burglaries in northeast Albuquerque. Police also accused the boy of shooting and wounding another teen, which prompted an investigation that turned up firearms and a bullet-proof vest that had been stolen from a police vehicle.

But the allegations of running down and killing a person were on another level, one seldom dealt with in New Mexico's juvenile justice system.

The 11-year-old and the other boys in the car, now ages 13 and 16, were arrested last week in connection with the death of Scott Dwight Habermehl, a father of two and a successful engineer.

Prosecutors said Friday that all three boys will face the same charges: counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death and unlawful possession of a handgun by a person under 19. Prosecutors are seeking to have the oldest boy charged as an adult.

The spike in juvenile violence — particularly this latest case — has shaken the community, further frustrated law enforcement and added to the pressure on policymakers to reconsider the limitations of a juvenile justice system that wasn't designed to deal with children as young as 11.

Authorities say there's a perception among juveniles that they won't face consequences for violent crimes.

Albuquerque police have arrested numerous teens, most being 15 or older, in homicide cases over the last year. Legal experts and authorities can't recall a case in which someone as young as 11 has faced a murder charge.

Under state law, the 11-year-old cannot be held in a juvenile detention center but will remain in the custody of the state child welfare agency. The other two boys were ordered to remain in a juvenile detention center as their cases proceed, with children's court judges finding they were a danger to themselves and the community.

Santa Fe-based attorney John Day said New Mexico’s juvenile justice system was meant to intervene and get help for children so they wouldn't commit crimes as adults. It was designed with the assumption that kids this young weren't competent to engage in this kind of violent behavior, he said.

“Obviously when you have 11-year-olds who are being accused of participating in running over bicyclists and brandishing guns, that’s something that when they were drafting these laws was really not taken into consideration because it was a different time,” Day said.

There is a minimum age for prosecuting juveniles in 26 states, with statutes spelling out various exceptions, according to the National Juvenile Justice Network. But New Mexico is among the many states without a minimum age and state law allows for teenagers as young as 14 in some instances to be tried in adult court only for first-degree murder.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman says the streets have changed dramatically since 1993, the last time New Mexico's children's code was meaningfully updated, but the Democratic-controlled Legislature has failed to consider changes that include expanding the types of violent crimes juveniles could be charged in as adults.

Without modernizing the system and pairing meaningful consequences with behavioral health support, Bregman said things will only get worse. He pointed to a proliferation of guns and social media, saying it's out of control.

“That’s how they all communicate. This is how they settle grudges. It’s not taking a fistfight behind the high school anymore. They’re pulling out a gun and shooting at an unsanctioned car show," he said, referring to a deadly shooting at a park in Las Cruces on Friday night.

“We need to have our laws catch up with the times,” Bregman said.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Saturday reiterated her disappointment that lawmakers failed to pass legislation to address juvenile justice and what she described as a crime crisis. She said lawmakers should expect to be called back for a special session.

Before the creation of juvenile courts more than a century ago, children who were older than 7 were processed and incarcerated under common law just as adults would be. Younger children were considered incapable of possessing criminal intent.

Along with that history, the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention notes on its website that the juvenile court system also was established to provide positive social development for children who lack support at home.

Juvenile justice advocates say cases in which young children are accused of murder are rare but not unheard of. In 2008, Arizona prosecutors handled the case of an 8-year-old boy who shot and killed his father and his father's friend. He pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the death of the friend. Prosecutors dropped the charge for killing his father, saying it was best for the boy not to have to acknowledge killing his father.

Some advocates have pushed for setting the minimum age for prosecution at least 14, citing research suggesting children who enter the juvenile justice system earlier in their lives have more adverse outcomes than older teens.

Before knowing the hit-and-run in New Mexico was deliberate, authorities had warned in a criminal complaint naming the 11-year-old in other crimes that the pattern of misconduct was escalating in violence. The document went on to suggest the boy was a danger to himself and the public.

Cases like this beg questions about how children end up in situations like this and what systems failed them along the way, said Amy Borror, a senior youth policy strategist with The Gault Center, a Washington, D.C.-based youth rights advocacy group.

Another consideration, she said, is that adolescents' brains are wired differently. Borror pointed specifically to the part of the brain that controls reasoning, rational thought and the ability to comprehend the effects of actions.

“That’s why kids and teenagers act exactly like kids and teenagers act,” she said, referring to risk-seeking behavior that intensifies while in groups.

The difficulty comes with figuring out how to hold someone accountable when they don't have the same level of rational decision making that adults do, said Joshua Kastenberg, a former lawyer and judge in the U.S. Air Force who now teaches at the University of New Mexico Law School.

“Kids in the criminal justice system are one of the more difficult questions in the law,” Kastenberg said. “Unlike adults, where you can simply say, ‘Well, this person intentionally ran down a cyclist in their car, they’re a danger to society.’ Whether they have anger management problems or they hate cyclists or whatever, they completely disregarded the right of another human being to simply live. ... But when you’re talking about kids, none of that sinks in.”

The Latest: Republican Senate Armed Services chairman wants investigation into Signal chat

2025-03-27 03:08 Last Updated At：03:10

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and Sen. Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, will request an inspector general investigation into the use of Signal by top national security officials to discuss military plans. Wicker’s move is notable given the Trump administration’s defiance that no classified information was posted to the Signal chat.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe were questioned before Congress about how a journalist was added to a group chat in which they discussed American military strikes in Yemen. Democrats called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared in the group chat the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop, to resign over the exposure.

The Supreme Court is hearing a new test of federal power in a major legal fight over $8 billion in annual subsidies for phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas.

And people in Greenland appear cautiously relieved that Vice President JD Vance and his wife will limit their Friday trip to a U.S. military base, rather than appear uninvited at a public event.

Here's the Latest:

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Trump’s trade war “is hurting American consumers and workers and it will hurt more.”

American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low and U.S.-Canadian kinship is under more strain than ever before, Carney said while campaigning in Windsor, Ontario ahead of Canada’s April 28 election.

Trump put 25% tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening to impose sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products on April 2.

But America will never own Canada, Carney said: “It will never ever happen because we just don’t look out for ourselves we look out for each other.”

▶ Read more on the Canadian view of Trump tariffs

“Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist” to the Signal group chat with the most senior Trump officials, Marco Rubio said. “Nothing against journalists, but you aren’t supposed to be on that thing.”

Speaking alongside Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness during his tour of the Caribbean, Rubio said he’s been assured by the Pentagon that the group chat’s details about attacking Houthis in Yemen weren’t classified.

“It didn’t put in danger anyone’s life or the mission. There was no intelligence information,” Rubio said. “There was no war plans on there. This was a sort of description of what we could inform our counterparts around the world when the time came to do so.”

▶ Read more about Rubio’s Caribbean trip

The Education Department says applications for income-driven repayment plans are available online again for student loan borrowers.

The applications were taken down in response to a February court ruling that blocked some Biden-era programs. The materials’ removal had complicated the renewal process for borrowers already enrolled in other repayment plans.

The department said Wednesday that revisions to the form were necessary to comply with the court ruling.

The American Federation of Teachers had filed a lawsuit seeking to force the department to accept and process applications for the repayment plans.

The complaint filed Wednesday before the Merit System Protection Board accuses the Trump administration of violating the workers’ First Amendment rights and unlawfully targeting them because they promoted diversity, equity and inclusion.

The complaint also alleges that the mass firings violated anti-discrimination laws because they were based on pair of anti-DEI executive orders that “disproportionately singled out federal workers who were not white men for hostility, suspicion, job interference, and termination.”

The complaint was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward and two law firms on behalf of Mahri Stainnak, a former employee of the Office of Personnel Management, and “similarly-situated federal workers.”

“I would characterize this messaging thread as a policy discussion, a sensitive policy discussion amongst high level cabinet officials and senior staff,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Wednesday.

Asked to square how classified information wasn’t shared, considering launch times and weapon systems were included, Leavitt cited a social media post by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that said the information wasn’t classified.

She also assailed The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg — mistakenly added to the thread by the national security adviser — as an “anti-Trump sensationalist reporter.”

“Do you trust the secretary of defense — who was nominated for this role, voted by the United States Senate into this role, who has served in combat, honorably served our nation in uniform — or do you trust Jeffrey Goldberg?” she asked.

Senate Democrats said Frank Bisignano should withdraw his nomination to lead the Social Security Administration.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer compared appointing Bisignano to “hiring an arsonist to run the fire station.”

“And what is the intent? Kill Social Security — by strangling, by not letting it work, by making it so that it’s impossible for people to get their help and their benefits,” Schumer said.

Bisignano, a Wall Street veteran and self described “DOGE person,” faced tough questions at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

The justices heard nearly three hours of arguments Wednesday in a new test of federal regulatory power, reviewing an appellate ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the Universal Service Fund, the tax that has been added to phone bills for nearly 30 years.

Liberal and conservative justices alike expressed concerns about the potentially devastating consequences of eliminating the fund that has benefitted tens of millions of Americans. The Court seems likely to preserve the subsidies for phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas.

▶ Read more on this test of federal regulatory power

The White Houses claims the tariffs will foster domestic manufacturing. It also could put a financial squeeze on automakers that depend on global supply chains.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she would leave it to the president to flesh out his plans to tax foreign-made autos and parts at a 4 p.m. EST news conference. They could be complicated, as even U.S. automakers source their components from around the world.

Shares in General Motors have fallen roughly 1.7% in Wednesday afternoon trading. Ford’s stock was down roughly 1.5%.

The Georgia congresswoman made her declaration after her contentious House Oversight committee hearing featuring the leaders of PBS and NPR.

Greene said the systems “can hate us on your own dime.”

Republicans on the committee repeatedly attacked the public broadcasting outlets for what they called biased reporting. Trump also called for ending federal funding in what represents the most serious threat to the system in many years.

The leaders acknowledged some mistakes — NPR chief Katharine Maher said they should have offered more coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop — but said they work hard to present viewpoints of all Americans.

The Department of Homeland Security says in a post on X that Kristi Noem will discuss how the U.S. can expand deportation flights of “violent criminals” to the Central American nation.

Noem is visiting a prison where Venezuelans removed from the U.S. are being held. The Trump administration has acknowledged that many do not have criminal records, but alleges that they are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. It has not identified who was deported or given any evidence that they’re gang members.

She’ll also meet with President Nayib Bukele. He agreed to imprison the deportees at the administration’s request.

U.S. District Judge James Bredar is briefly extending a temporary order requiring the Trump administration to bring back federal workers who were fired as part of a dramatic downsizing of the federal workforce.

During a hearing in Baltimore on Wednesday, the judge said he is reluctant to issue a sweeping national preliminary injunction in the case. The government is appealing Bredar’s earlier decision to require the federal government to reinstate more than 24,000 federal workers.

His ruling came in a lawsuit filed by 19 states and the District of Columbia. They contend the Trump administration blindsided them with the layoffs, which could have devastating consequences for their state finances.

The so-called X-date is when the country runs short of money to pay its bills.

Without another deal between lawmakers and the White House, the government will exhaust the accounting maneuvers used to stretch existing funds by August, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday.

The House added $4 trillion to the debt ceiling in the Republican budget plan, which sets the stage for extending tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term. Whether the Republican-led Senate will agree remains unclear.

“Democrats are ready to work across the aisle to prevent a catastrophic default. But Republicans must work with us to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

Sen. Roger Wicker said he and Sen. Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, will send a letter to the Trump administration requesting an Inspector General investigation into the use of Signal by top national security officials to discuss military plans.

Wicker is also calling for a classified Senate briefing from a top national security official and verification that The Atlantic published an accurate transcript of the Signal chat.

Wicker’s move is notable given the Trump administration’s defiance. Most Republicans seem content to allow the episode to blow over. Asked what the consequences for Hegseth should be, Wicker said, “Let’s see.”

He added that the administration — “right up to the president” — should take a conciliatory approach to the episode.

Wednesday’s filing seeks approval to go ahead with cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training.

A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked the cuts, finding they were already impacting a nationwide teacher shortage. Eight Democratic-led states challenged Trump’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs as his administration follows his executive order calling for the dismantling of the Education Department.

The Justice Department has filed three other emergency appeals of court rulings that blocked administration actions.

The Supreme Court has yet to rule on whether to narrow nationwide holds on executive actions as Trump seeks to restrict birthright citizenship. Also pending is an appeal to halt an order requiring the rehiring of thousands of federal workers.

The questioning of John Ratcliffe descended into yelling as a California Democrat asked the CIA director whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was drinking when he used the Signal app to text his plans for attacking Houthis in Yemen.

“I think that’s an offensive line of questioning,” Ratcliffe told Rep. Jimmy Gomez. “The answer is no.”

Ratcliffe and Gomez then began shouting over each other as Gomez tried to follow up.

“We want to know if his performance is compromised,” Gomez said.

“It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity, no acceptance of responsibility,” said Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado. He said Pete Hegseth “must resign immediately. There can be no fixes, there can be no corrections until there is accountability.”

Other Democrats on House Intelligence Committee rejected assertions by Gabbard and Ratcliffe that no classified material was included in the chat. They pointed chat messages released by The Atlantic on Wednesday as evidence the exposure could have jeopardized the mission’s success or endangered U.S. service members’ lives.

“This is classified information. It’s a weapon system, as well as a sequence of strikes, as well as details of the operations,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. “He needs to resign immediately.”

Asked if he thinks they’re “eager” to become American citizens, Trump said he didn’t know “but I think we have to do it, and we have to convince them.”

Trump repeated in an interview Wednesday on “The Vince Show” that the U.S. needs control of Greenland for national security reasons. His pronouncements have irked residents of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

Vance and his wife, Usha, are scheduled Friday to visit a U.S. military base on the Arctic island.

Now chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, the Georgia Republican summoned the leaders of PBS and NPR to a hearing, demanding to know why taxpayers funded what she considers biased news resembling content from communist China.

Trump suggested Tuesday that public funding for PBS and NPR be cut off.

NPR chief Katherine Maher says the radio network is making progress in presenting different viewpoints on the air.

Gabbard acknowledged before the House Intelligence Committee that the texts contained “candid and sensitive” discussions but said again that no classified information was included.

“It was a mistake that a reporter was inadvertently added,” Gabbard said.

National security adviser Mike Waltz has taken responsibility for the addition of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to the chat, which also included the defense secretary, the vice president and other top Trump administration officials.

Democrats blasted it as a sloppy mistake that could have put American service members at risk.

Texts released by The Atlantic on Wednesday referred to the timing of strikes and the types of weaponry involved.

Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe face more questioning about how Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a group chat in which they discussed American military strikes in Yemen.

Gabbard, Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Michael Waltz and other top national security officials were on the chat, which included the times of warplane launches and other actions.

Waltz has taken responsibility. Trump called it “a glitch.” Democrats said it was an irresponsible security lapse that could require resignations.

Republican Rep. Rick Crawford urged his fellow House Intelligence Committee members not to focus on the Signal chat leak during Wednesday’s hearing on global threats.

“It’s my sincere hope that we use this hearing to discuss the many foreign threats facing our nation,” Crawford said in opening remarks.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya passed a 53-47 party-line vote to become director of the the National Institutes of Health.

The Stanford University health economist, an outspoken critic of COVID-19 policies, has vowed to encourage scientific dissent. He now leads the world’s top funder of biomedical research as Trump drastically reduces its funding and workforce.

Dr. Marty Makary won over a handful of Democrats in a 56-44 vote to become commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates drugs, medical devices and food safety.

The Johns Hopkins University researcher also has contrarian views, and like the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has criticized food additives, ultraprocessed foods and the overprescribing of drugs.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and top Senate Democrats on the national security committees want answers from Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials as the Signal app fallout deepens, questioning whether the actions violate the Espionage Act.

“We write to you with extreme alarm about the astonishingly poor judgment shown by your Cabinet and national security advisors,” the senators wrote in a letter to the president.

“Our committees have serious questions,” they wrote, detailing a 10-part probing line of inquiry.

The senators noted that if any other American military servicemember or official committed such breach “they would be investigated and likely prosecuted.”

▶ Read more on the Signal text chat fallout

The legislature voted overwhelmingly in favor after Democratic Gov. Matt Meyer urged quick passage amid pressure from corporate leaders about court precedents governing conflicts of interest.

Elon Musk encouraged a “Dexit” after Tesla shareholder complaints led a judge to invalidate his compensation package potentially worth more than $55 billion.

Critics warned it will harm investors, pensioners and middle-class savers by making it harder to hold corporate insiders accountable for violating their fiduciary duties.

Delaware is the legal home of more than 2 million corporate entities, including two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies. State Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton warned against “cooking that golden goose.”

▶ Read more about how Delaware’s loosening of corporate accountability

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin says the victory means state House Democrats “can stand up to Trump’s mayhem in Washington.”

Democrat Dan Goughnour handily won Tuesday's special election, keeping majority control by a single seat, 102-101. He beat Republican Chuck Davis in the Pittsburgh-area district. This removes a potential barrier to Gov. Josh Shapiro, a rising star among Democrats who is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.

Martin’s statement says the victory will block efforts to weaken Shapiro’s authority and “continue to expand job opportunities, strengthen schools and create safe communities in Pennsylvania.”

▶ Read more on the Pennsylvania race’s impact

The Atlantic released the entire Signal chat between Trump senior national security officials on Wednesday, showing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact times of war plane launches through the unclassified communications app — before the men and women flying those attacks on behalf of the United States were airborne.

The revelation follows two intense days where Trump’s senior most cabinet members of his intelligence and defense agencies have squirmed to explain how details — which current and former U.S. officials have said would have been classified — wound up on an unclassified Signal chat that included Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

Hegseth has refused to say whether he posted classified information onto Signal. He is traveling in the Indo-Pacific and to date has only said he did not reveal “war plans.”

▶ Read more on related developments as Trump officials face House questioning

When Trump canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia University over its handling of student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, much of the financial pain fell on researchers a train ride away from the school’s campus, working on things like curing cancer and studying COVID-19’s impact on children.

The urgency of salvaging ongoing research projects at the university’s labs and world-renowned medical center was one factor in Columbia’s decision last week to bow to the Republican administration’s unprecedented demands for changes in university policy as a condition of getting funding restored.

The university’s decision to accede to nearly all of the Trump administration’s demands outraged some faculty members, who say Columbia has sacrificed academic freedom. The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, representing members of Columbia’s faculty, filed a lawsuit Tuesday saying the funding revocation violated free speech laws.

Scientific and medical researchers are appalled that their work was drawn into the debate to begin with.

▶ Read more about the impact on researchers at Columbia

Greenland and Denmark appeared cautiously relieved early Wednesday by the news that Vance and his wife are changing their itinerary for their visit to Greenland Friday, reducing the likelihood that they will cross paths with residents angered by the Trump administration’s attempts to annex the vast Arctic island, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The couple will now visit the U.S. Space Force outpost at Pituffik, on the northwest coast of Greenland, instead of Usha Vance’s previously announced solo trip to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut.

The vice president’s decision to visit a U.S. military base in Greenland has removed the risk of violating potential diplomatic taboos by sending a delegation to another country without an official invitation. But Vance has also criticized longstanding European allies for relying on military support from the United States, openly antagonizing partners in ways that have generated concerns about the reliability of the U.S.

▶ Read more about the vice president’s trip to Greenland

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with the so-called “Big 6” group at U.S. Treasury Tuesday

The group includes White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith.

A Treasury readout of the meeting states that the group discussed permanently extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

“I am dedicated to working with Congress in making permanent President Trump’s historic tax cuts and reviving the American dream,” Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s productive meeting gives me confidence that a swift timeframe is achievable.“

Trump’s executive order seeking broad changes to how elections are run in the U.S. is vast in scope and holds the potential to reorder the voting landscape across the country, even as it faces almost certain litigation.

He wants to require voters to show proof that they are U.S. citizens before they can register for federal elections, count only mail or absentee ballots received by Election Day, set new rules for voting equipment and prohibit non-U.S. citizens from being able to donate in certain elections.

A basic question underlying the sweeping actions he signed Tuesday: Can he do it, given that the Constitution gives wide leeway to the states to develop their own election procedures? Here are some of the main points of the executive order and questions it raises.

▶ Read more about Trump’s executive order on elections