Solomon Pena jailed over gun attacks on Dems' homes in New Mexico
Accomplices Jose Trujillo and Demetrio Trujillo pleaded guilty last year on similar charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. They were sentenced to a collective 18 years in prison.
While in custody, Pena tried offering fellow inmates money and a vehicle in exchange for killing the pair, federal officials said. An attorney for Pena did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
"Across the country, we have seen a disturbing uptick in politically-motivated violence over the last several years," State Representative Javier Martinez, one of the targeted lawmakers, told USA TODAY in a statement. "Every single elected leader, regardless of the office we hold or the party we belong to, must speak up against this violence and the dangerous misinformation that fuels it."
What did Solomon Pena do?
Pena ran during the 2022 midterm elections for a New Mexico House of Representatives seat covering parts of Albuquerque. He lost to the Democratic incumbent Miguel P. Garcia, with around 2,000 votes to Garcia's 5,700, according to the state election results.
Pena attempted to pressure the county board of commissioners to refuse to certify the election results, and when that failed, he turned to violence, prosecutors said. He orchestrated attacks on Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, New Mexico state Representative Javier Martinez, former Bernalillo County Commissioner, New Mexico state Senator Debbie O'Malley, and New Mexico state Senator Linda Lopez.
All are Democrats. The attacks occurred between Dec. 4, 2022, and Jan. 3, 2023.
The bullets fired in the assaults hit houses, cars, and even passed inside the bedroom of a 10-year-old girl, according to court filings and statements from police. Barboa previously told USA TODAY that she laid blame for the attack on President Donald Trump.
"People don't think that voice from the White House will reach all the way down to someone like Solomon Pena, but it does," Barboa said, recalling seeing the damage done by the bullets that whizzed through her living room and kitchen. "That year, for the whole entire year, we had election deniers coming to every meeting."
Related: Court papers reveal details on former Republican candidate linked to shootings at New Mexico lawmakers' homes
Political attacks in the U.S.
Pena's sentencing comes amid a year that's seen deadly attacks against politicians.
Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman were assassinated at their home in June. Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were also attacked the same night at their home. Vance Boelter, 57, has been charged in connection with the attacks.
In May, Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed in Washington, D.C. Elias Rodriguez, 31, has been charged with their murders as well as with a hate crime resulting in death motivated by the "actual and perceived national origin of any person." Staffers Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, were about to be engaged to be married.
Contributing: Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
The first casualty of war is truth
Bruce Whitehead On Monday morning the news was sinking in of the killing of six journalists in Gaza as they reported on Israel's relentless war on a largely civilian territory occupied by starving families. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... I am sick of writing about atrocities in Gaza. In 2009 I drove there with humanitarian aid collected by Scottish Muslim, Jewish and Christian faith groups, after up to 1400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died when Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – recently invited onto British TV news programmes as a 'moderate' – breached a six-month ceasefire by ordering the killing of seven Hamas fighters. With a dozen vehicles we travelled through eastern Europe to deliver first aid, food, toys and healthcare supplies to areas of Gaza City flattened by Israeli bombs. As a journalist I witnessed the effects of bombardment on innocent civilians which killed an estimated 300 children. Crushed concrete buildings, donkey carts picking their way through mounds of rubble. 16 years on, western journalists are barred from Gaza, so it's impossible to verify Israel's claims about the conflict on the ground. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad With the deaths of Al Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa and freelancer Mohammad al-Khaldi – sheltering in a cloth tent near a hospital – Israel has almost snuffed out the last source of evidence of its genocidal campaign. The BBC still has its own freelancers sending footage of the slaughter of starving Palestinians in food queues, but surely they too are in mortal peril. I have called on my union, the National Union of Journalists, to demand that the Foreign Minister David Lammy summon the Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely for a formal British diplomatic protest. Many of my former BBC and ITN colleagues work for Al Jazeera, and this is the latest in a long and shameful tale of targeted Israeli raids on journalists. In May I paid tribute on behalf of the NUJ to all journalists killed at work, at Workers' Memorial Day in Princes Street Gardens. My words then are appropriate today: 'The deaths of journalists remind us yet again that the first casualty of war is Truth.'
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
BRIAN READE: 'We must shame rich into sharing fortunes to rebuild Broken Britain'
As The Entertainer toy store boss retires and leaves his £80million firm to his workforce, Brian Reade says we need to force the wealthy to share their fortunes Politicians often use working-class names to show that they are down with the common folk. The Republican 2008 US presidential hopeful John McCain constantly evoked 'Joe The Plumber' to signify his blue-collar credentials. Although the plumber couldn't stop his campaign going down the toilet. When Margaret Thatcher privatised British Gas in 1986, ad men urged us 'If you see Sid, tell him' to buy some shares. Sadly many did, then flogged them to City firms who scammed us, and we ended up wanting to gas Sid. But I think I've found a winner for Labour as they seek to do what everyone knows they need to do but are too scared to: force those whose wealth has soared since the bankers' crisis to share some of their fortune with our skint Treasury. They should put posters in City clubs, adverts across right-wing media and project images on to all the HQs of FTSE 100 companies saying: 'Be more like Gary.' Let me explain. Gary Grant who owns Britain's biggest toy retailer The Entertainer is retiring and giving his £80million business to the firm's 1,900 workers. He is transferring ownership of the family's 160-shop chain to an employee trust, meaning staff get to share the profits and decide its future, rather than flog it to cost-slashing corporate hawks. 'If the business had been sold just for money that would not have been passing on the baton in the way the family wanted,' said the practising Christian, with one of the delighted workers saying: 'He always looks after us. It's a typical Gary thing to do.' 'Gary things' have happened before. In 2019, Julian Richer handed control of his audio chain Richer Sounds to staff, giving them 60% of his shares, triggering a windfall of around £4million. Also challenging the stereotype of the vampire capitalist obsessed with multi-million pound bonuses is a selfless group called Patriotic Millionaires UK, who are campaigning for people like them to pay more tax. They point out that the top 10% owns 57% of the UK's wealth, while the bottom half owns less than 5%, and believe making those at the top pay more tax would drive down inequality and help rebuild Broken Britain. They also dismiss as a myth the notion that Labour is driving out the rich, pointing out that 'less than 0.3%' of the country's three million millionaires are projected to emigrate. The likes of Gary Grant, Julian Richer and the Patriotic Millionaires should have a seat in the Cabinet to advise Labour how to incentivise other CEOs and millionaires to 'do a Gary thing.' These are the people who understand that success and happiness is not defined by the width of your wallet but the depth of your compassion. That the most patriotic thing you can do is share your wealth with the people who helped you make it. Patriotic Millionaires (motto: 'Proud to pay, here to stay') also point to a recent poll carried out by Survation which claimed 80% of millionaires support a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10million. Why don't Labour test that? Why not hold a summit with the CBI, invite prominent millionaires, and call on them all to 'do the Gary thing'. Then name and stain the non-patriotic refuseniks. Maybe if Labour can't soak the rich into paying more, it's time to shame them into it.
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
How many US presidents has Putin met? The answer may surprise you.
Learn more: What Trump thinks could happen at summit Putin has met all five U.S. presidents who were in office since he came to power in 2000. In Trump's first term, he and Putin met face-to-face six times in five locations around the world. Here's where they have met. Can't see our graphics? Click here to reload page. The summit is a "listening exercise," and the goal for Trump "is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a news briefing Aug. 12. Putin has visited the United States before, even spending time with President George W. Bush at the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 2007. But the Alaskan conference is the first visit by a Russian leader to the state, which the United States bought from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. That equals about $156.4 million today, according to What other U.S. presidents have Putin met? Putin has met five U.S. presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. How does Putin compare with other Russian leaders? Trump said he hopes the meeting with Putin will lead to a second meeting between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where the two sides can reach a peace agreement, USA TODAY reported. CONTRIBUTING Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, Tom Vanden Brook, Joey Garrison, Kathryn Palmer and Ben Adler SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; State Department archive
