Prosecutors urge 90-year sentence for Solomon Peña to discourage political violence

Prosecutors are recommending that a federal judge sentence Solomon Peña this week to at least 90 years in prison, arguing that a lengthy sentence will help deter others tempted to use violence to achieve political ends.

A federal jury in March convicted Peña of 13 felonies for orchestrating a string of shootings at the homes of four Democratic elected officials following the 2022 election.

Peña, 42, is scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque before Judge Kea W. Riggs.

The hearing will conclude a three-year political saga that began in November 2022 when Peña lost an election, leading to a series of reprisal shootings targeting the homes of Albuquerque officials.

Peña’s attorneys on Friday asked the judge to sentence him to 60 years in prison, the minimum allowed by law.

“Mr. Peña maintains his innocence and requests that the Court sentence him to the mandatory minimum of 60 years,” Albuquerque attorney Nicholas Hart wrote in the defendant’s sentencing memorandum.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a detailed sentencing memorandum on Wednesday arguing that the maximum sentence of 90 years to life imprisonment was called for “to reflect the seriousness of the offense” and “promote respect for the law.” No one was killed or injured by gunfire in the attacks for which Peña was convicted.

“His project, his mission, is to undermine our Republic through fear and violence,” it said. “A representative republic cannot exist if citizens are afraid to run for office, to vote, or to count votes.”

Peña’s actions “constitute a significant escalation of political and personal violence,” the memorandum said. A lengthy sentence is “necessary to afford adequate deterrence to others who would follow a similar path.”

Peña’s sentencing hearing follows a series of high-profile attacks on politicians around the U.S. unrelated to Peña’s case.

They include a June 14 attack in Minnesota that killed Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House speaker, and her husband, Mark, who were fatally shot in their home. Earlier that day and just miles away, Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot and wounded at their home.

Vance Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, pleaded not guilty Thursday to six counts of murder, stalking and firearms violations in those shootings.

In Pennsylvania, authorities have arrested and charged a man who allegedly set fire to the governor’s mansion in April while Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family slept, forcing them to evacuate and severely damaging the building.

Peña’s trial

At Peña’s weeklong trial in March, prosecutors argued that Peña planned and ordered shootings at the homes of two state lawmakers and two Bernalillo County commissioners, directing the actions of his co-defendants.

In closing arguments, Peña’s attorneys put full responsibility for the shootings on Peña’s co-defendants, Jose and Demetrio Trujillo, both of whom offered lengthy testimony during the trial.

Hart told jurors to remain skeptical of the Trujillos’ testimony, saying both men sought favorable sentences in exchange for testimony implicating Peña as the mastermind.

Both of the Trujillos pleaded guilty earlier this year to multiple federal charges. In May, two months after Peña’s trial, the judge sentenced Demetrio Trujillo, 43, to 15 years in prison and Jose Trujillo, 24, to 37 months.

Prosecutors contend that Peña was motivated by his November 2022 election loss to incumbent state Rep. Miguel P. Garcia, D-Albuquerque, by a margin of nearly 50 percentage points. Peña later posted on social media that the election was “rigged.”

“Defendant’s motives were political, on the personal, local and national levels,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum. “He acted out of personal political motivation to seek revenge against the officials who had certified the results of his electoral contest and ‘laughed’ at him while doing it.”

The Trujillos testified that Peña conspired with them to fire gunshots at the Albuquerque homes of four Democratic elected officials between Dec. 4, 2022, and Jan. 3, 2023.

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 3, 2023, Jose Trujillo fired 12 rounds from a fully automatic machine gun at the home where state Sen. Linda Lopez and her 10-year-old daughter slept. Peña himself fired once before his gun jammed.

“Senator Lopez testified that the bullets that ripped into her house entered her bedroom and her daughter’s bedroom,” prosecutors wrote in the memorandum. “A bullet flew just over her daughter as she slept.”

Law enforcement got a break in the case later that night when a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy stopped Jose Trujillo, who was driving Peña’s car with guns in the trunk used in the Lopez shooting.

Other elected officials targeted were Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, former county commissioner and now state Sen. Debbie O’Malley, and House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque.

Peña “acted out of a desire to engage with national politics, to fight back against what he saw as the ‘oligarchs’ who had ‘rigged’ previous elections,” the memorandum said. “He chose violence and intimidation as his tools to achieve his personal, local, and national political objectives.”

In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors cite Peña’s attempts to eliminate his codefendants by offering a car and $10,000 to any inmate who could kill Jose or Demetrio Trujillo, for which Peña was convicted of three counts of solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

The memorandum also cites Peña’s prior criminal history, which includes state convictions for auto burglary, receiving stolen property and other crimes. Federal prosecutors also contend that Peña’s profession was “storm chasing,” which they describe as “the practice of defrauding insurance companies by repairing nonexistent damage.”