Connect with us

New Mexico

Mom once under investigation in Mass. now charged in her toddler's death in New Mexico

Published

2 years ago

on

Mom once under investigation in Mass. now charged in her toddler's death in New Mexico


Crime

Kerri Anne Santos, a former Gardner resident, is facing child abuse charges in the death of her 3-year-old daughter.

A former Massachusetts woman is facing child abuse charges in New Mexico following the death of her 3-year-old toddler on Saturday. 

Kerri Anne Santos, 31, previously lived with relatives in Gardner and was once the subject of a child welfare investigation in Massachusetts, the Albuquerque Police Department said.

Advertisement
Kerri Anne Santos, who has connections to Gardner, is one of four charged by New Mexico authorities in the death of her 3-year-old daughter. – Albuquerque Police Department

She arrived at the University of New Mexico Hospital shortly before 4 a.m. Saturday with her daughter’s body wrapped in a blanket and two other children in tow, according to police. Medical personnel determined the toddler was dead upon arrival.

Santos allegedly told officials she left Massachusetts to get away from a “bad situation” and that her daughter fell from a toilet and injured herself. However, investigators noted the girl had ligature marks on both ankles and bruises behind her ears, around her right wrist, and along her underwear line.

Authorities in Albuquerque said an autopsy showed an injury to the girl’s head, but the medical investigator will wait for the results of a toxicology report before determining her cause of death. 

New Mexico officials reached out to police in Gardner for more insight on the family and reportedly learned that the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families had investigated Santos regarding allegations that she used drugs around her children. DCF was unable to confirm or deny an investigation, citing state and federal privacy requirements. 

While looking into Santos’s background in Massachusetts, Albuquerque investigators also uncovered multiple domestic violence reports involving another adult, 28-year-old Austin Bing. They later learned that Santos had driven from Massachusetts to New Mexico with Bing and his mother, 46-year-old Christina Hopkins Pena-Cantor.

Advertisement

According to police, Santos and her children had been staying in an Albuquerque apartment with Bing, Hopkins Pena-Cantor, and 48-year-old James Welch — the apartment owner and Hopkins Pena-Cantor’s boyfriend. All four adults have been charged in the 3-year-old girl’s death. 

Police said one of the adults allegedly bound the child with shoelaces and tied her to a bed frame in the apartment on Jan. 12. Santos reportedly told investigators that her daughter had a pillow and blanket while she was tied up, “so she wouldn’t get too cold.” She also allegedly told police that after her daughter fell from the toilet, she waited about five to six hours before taking the girl to a hospital. 

Santos’s other two children, a 6-year-old and an infant, were placed in the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department. Albuquerque police said all three children are believed to be victims of sexual abuse. 

Santos is charged with child abuse resulting in death, child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, and aiding or abetting in the criminal sexual contact of a minor, according to a copy of her criminal complaint. 

Hopkins Pena-Cantor and Bing are both charged with child abuse and child abuse resulting in death. Welch is charged with child abuse.

Advertisement





Source link

Advertisement
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 hour ago

on

January 8, 2026

By

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion


Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
 |  Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Advertisement

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico: 

  1. Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
  2. Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment. 
  3. New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.  

Advertisement

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.  

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

New Mexico

New Mexico maintains full childhood vaccine recommendations despite HHS rollback

Published

14 hours ago

on

January 7, 2026

By

New Mexico maintains full childhood vaccine recommendations despite HHS rollback


SANTA FE, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) – The New Mexico Department of Health says it will continue to recommend the full schedule of childhood vaccines.

State officials announced the move Tuesday, directly defying a new federal policy that scaled back routine immunization guidance.

The announcement comes after U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reduced the number of vaccines it recommends for all children.

The New Mexico Department of Health stated the federal changes were “not based on new scientific evidence or safety data.”

Advertisement

“New Mexico will not follow the federal government in walking away from decades of proven public health practice,” said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. “Our recommendations remain unchanged.”

State health officials sought to reassure parents, emphasizing that vaccines remain widely available and covered by insurance.

“We know this is confusing for parents, but the science is clear: vaccines are safe, effective, and save children’s lives,” said Dr. Miranda Durham, chief medical officer for NMDOH.

All childhood vaccinations will continue to be covered under programs like Medicaid and the federal Vaccines for Children Program.

The state encourages parents to consult their healthcare providers using the American Academy of Pediatrics’ immunization schedule.

RECOMMENDED: CDC cuts childhood vaccine list, sparking healthcare professionals’ concerns

Advertisement

Sign up to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.



Source link

Continue Reading

New Mexico

Texas man charged with selling artist Fritz Scholder fakes to New Mexicans

Published

1 day ago

on

January 7, 2026

By

Texas man charged with selling artist Fritz Scholder fakes to New Mexicans





Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending