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Appellate court rulings tend to make for academic reading as jurists weigh arguments, carefully parse the law and apply it to the facts of a particular case. But the decisions have flesh-and-blood consequences for defendants, victims of crime and community safety.
The New Mexico Supreme Court’s decision last week in which the court unanimously overturned a lower court ruling and decided that aggravated fleeing from law enforcement can be used as a predicate for felony murder – a first-degree charge that carries a life sentence – meets those criteria.
Elexus Groves
Shaunna Arredondo-Boling, 39, was driving her 14-year-old daughter Shaylee Boling to Sandia High School, where Shaylee was a freshman, in January 2017. A contractor van stolen as it was warming up by Elexus Groves, 25, and Paul Anthony Garcia, 28, was traveling nearly 80 mph when it T-boned the Arredondo-Boling vehicle near Chelwood Park and Copper NE.