New Mexico

4 Investigates: CARA reform in the New Mexico Legislature

Published

9 months ago

March 21, 2025

4 Investigates: CARA reform in the New Mexico Legislature

It is a race to the finish line for legislation aimed at reforming New Mexico’s troubled Children Youth and Families Department.

SANTA FE, N.M. — It is a race to the finish line for legislation aimed at reforming New Mexico’s troubled Children Youth and Families Department.

That starts with major changes to a program our 4 Investigates team discovered was failing our most vulnerable families – the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, known as CARA.

An emergency room is not the place any of us want to be but, at an Espanola hospital last July, a northern New Mexico grandmother was almost relieved when officers show up.

“This is what I needed, this is really what I needed,” she said to an officer.

She’s not thankful that her 10-month-old grandson overdosed on fentanyl.

“I’m not saying I wanted this to happen. But this is what happened right now. I can use this in court to petition for my own grandson,” she said.

She’s hopeful this time someone may finally listen.

“It makes me sick to my stomach. No mother and no New Mexican should have to hear that. And we should be held accountable for that,” said Republican state Rep. Gail Armstrong, the New Mexico House Minority Leader. “The governor should be held accountable for that. CYFD should be held accountable for that.”

Armstrong remembers when New Mexico passed CARA in 2019. Instead of calling CYFD for child abuse when a baby was born to a mom on drugs, hospitals were supposed to create a plan of care – a way to get parents help while keeping families safe together – but that’s not how things always play out.

“CYFD was involved when the baby was born. But then after a while they dropped the case,” the grandmother said. “And that was it. Which, I think they’re doing a shi–y job because they should have followed through.”

Over the last several years, 4 Investigates discovered dozens of babies have died from a drug overdose or with drugs in their system. Their parents are either in prison or facing years behind bars.

“There’s no reporting. There’s no follow up. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing and it’s really no one’s fault but CYFD,” Armstrong said.

While families like Jeramay Martinez’s are stuck in a cycle of addiction.

“How do you expect someone to follow a plan when there is no plan? There is no resource. There is no actual treatment. That’s what I saw,” Martinez said.

Democratic state Sen. Michael Padilla said the New Mexico Legislature will finally overhaul CARA this year.

“There’s a lot of people with their eyes on this now so we don’t drop the ball on this ever again,” Padilla said.

Senate Bill 42, which Armstrong signed on to, moves the CARA to the Healthcare Authority. That would allow care coordinators to use an evidence-based model to get that family what they need. It would no be longer voluntary. If a family doesn’t engage, there will be a family assessment and a call to CYFD.

Padilla said lawmakers set aside more than $20 million for the program.

“There’s just no horsing around anymore. We are going to focus like a laser beam on that baby,” Padilla said.

There is hope – but also skepticism. Family members told KOB 4, even with a plan, if services aren’t available the moment someone is willing to go, they won’t get the help they need.

“This administration has had six years to fix this and they kept saying give us time, give us time, give us time. Well, time is up.”

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New Mexico

Ice hasn’t stopped trout in northern New Mexico – Alamogordo Daily News

Published

10 hours ago

December 14, 2025

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Ice hasn’t stopped trout in northern New Mexico – Alamogordo Daily News

Molly Bullard, age 12, of Rio Rancho caught three 12-inch rainbow trout in less than 15 minutes using worms on Dec. 2, 2025 at the Seven Springs Kids’ Pond.

Information and photos provided by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Eli Rodarte caught a 24-inch rainbow trout using worms in the bait…

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New Mexico

Running hot and cold: New Mexico runners earn 17 All American awards at national XC championships

Published

22 hours ago

December 14, 2025

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Running hot and cold: New Mexico runners earn 17 All American awards at national XC championships

YOUTH SPORTS

Gianna Chavez earns fourth in boys 8-and-under race

Ava Denton, of Albuquerque Athletics Track, competes Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025 at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship meet at Blue River Cross Country Course in Shelbyville, Indiana. Temperatures were in the 20s with a wind chill near zero.

Courtesy Carl Brasher

New Mexico had 17 athletes earn All American awards at the 2025 National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship meet held Saturday at snowy Blue River Cross Country Course in Shelbyville, Indiana.

Gianni Chavez, of Albuquerque Athletics Track, earned his fourth USA Track & Field All American award with a fourth place finish in the 8-and-under boys 2K race. Chavez, an Osuna Elementary third-grader, ran his 2K race in a personal best time of 7 minutes, 44.9 seconds.

Gianni Chavez celebrates his fourth-place finish Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.

Courtesy Carl Brasher

The top 25 individual finishers and top three teams earn USATF All American awards.

The Cougar Track Club 8U girls team, based out of Albuquerque, placed second and was led by Antonette Marquez, who finished 12th. Other CTC 8U girls team members include Kimberly Reed (31st), Viola Crabbe Maple (55th), Payton Pacheco (61st), Chloe Chino (85th), Emery Grieco (113th) and Zay’a Cheromiah (149th).

Others individual All American award winners include Ava Denton, of AAT, 16th in 13/14 girls 4K; Brynlee Reed, of CTC, 22nd in 15/16 girls 5K; Sihasin Fleg, of Running Medicine, 21st in 8U girls 2K; Eden Pino, of Running Medicine, 12th in 9/10 girls 3K; Nizhoni Fleg, of Running Medicine, 14th in 17/18 girls 5K; Brady Garcia, of Running Medicine, seventh in 17/18 boys 5K; Justice Jones, of Zia, 14th in 9/10 girls 3K; Emilo Otero Soltero, of Dukes Track Club, 12th in 9/10 boys 3K; Miles Gray, unattached, 21st in 9/10 boys 3K.

Also Saturday, at the Brooks Cross Country Nationals in San Diego, Eldorado’s Gianna Rahmer placed 17th in the girls championship 5K with a time of 18:00.7 and Moriarty’s Carmen Dorsey-Spitz placed 25th 18:09.4.

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New Mexico

Anthony, NM man sentenced to prison, sold meth from parents’ property

Published

1 day ago

December 13, 2025

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An Anthony, New Mexico man was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison for selling methamphetamine.
David Amaya, 43, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute after being caught in an FBI investigation.
Authorities found over 1,100 grams of methamphetamine and two firearms in a trailer on his parents’ property.

An Anthony, New Mexico man was sentenced to nearly two decades in federal prison for selling methamphetamine from a trailer on his parents’ property, authorities said.

A federal judge sentenced David Amaya, 43, to 19 years and seven months in prison on one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, New Mexico federal court records show. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after he serves his prison term.

U.S. District Judge Margaret I. Strickland handed down the sentence on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the federal courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Williams prosecuted the case.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Ryan Ellison and FBI Albuquerque Field Office Special Agent in Charge Justin A. Garris announced Amaya’s sentencing in a joint news release.

Amaya pleaded guilty to the charge in September as part of a plea agreement that dismissed one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, court records show.

Anthony, New Mexico man sells meth on parents’ property

FBI agents began investigating Amaya after he sold methamphetamine to a “controlled buyer” in July and August 2024, the news release states. Controlled buys are when law enforcement uses an undercover agent or a witness to purchase drugs from a suspected drug dealer.

The agents obtained a search warrant on Aug. 22, 2024, for a “specific tow-behind type trailer that Amaya was known to be living in and conducting narcotics transfers out of,” a federal complaint affidavit states. The trailer was located on property owned by Amaya’s parents in Anthony, New Mexico, the news release states.

The trailer did not have a restroom, but agents found a small makeshift bathroom structure with a porta-potty inside next to the trailer. The agents then obtained a warrant to also search the small bathroom structure.

The agents found “a large quantity of white crystalline substance suspected to be methamphetamine” throughout the trailer and bathroom structure, the affidavit states. In the bathroom, agents found a clothing hamper with “a gallon zip lock bag full of suspected methamphetamine” hidden inside.

Agents found a black Ruger .357 caliber handgun containing five rounds of .357 caliber ammunition and a black Mossberg 500 E410 gauge shotgun on the bed inside the trailer, the affidavit states. The news release states agents found “hundreds of rounds of ammunition.”

They also found about 4.42 grams of methamphetamine on the bed and another 26 grams under the bed, the affidavit states. Agents found eight more grams of methamphetamine on a nightstand.

Amaya told agents during an interview that the methamphetamine was his, he had acquired it over a period of time, and did not realize how much it was, the affidavit states. He added he “needed the guns for protection, so people would know he has them, making him safer,” the affidavit states.

In total, the agents found 1,183 grams of methamphetamine.

Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.

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