Second Judicial District Court agrees to pay $365k settlement in pretrial release case

Devin Munford had violated the conditions of his court- approved pretrial release 113 times before he knocked at the apartment of an acquaintance in 2021. Munford fired his shotgun twice through the door, killing the 22-year-old.

Munford, 21, was under house arrest and wearing a GPS monitor at the time — awaiting trial on a separate felony charge of shooting a pistol from a car. He was restricted to a certain geographic zone pending resolution of his case, instead of being detained in jail.

His dozens of unauthorized departures outside that zone in the six-week period before Devon Heyborne was killed on April 23, 2021 could have landed him in jail — but they were never acted upon.

The failure of the 2nd Judicial District’s Court pretrial supervision unit to notify the judge, prosecutors or defense attorneys about the violations resulted in a $365,000 out-of-court settlement with Heyborne’s family in late September.

Heyborne’s mother, Angelica Alire, couldn’t be reached for comment. Her attorney in the case didn’t return a Journal phone call seeking comment.

When asked for comment, a court spokeswoman told the Journal, “The 2nd Judicial District Court has made many changes to its pretrial services program in recent years. The Court is committed to adhering to pretrial services best practices and has implemented both procedural changes and quality assurance measures since 2021.”

Munford was found guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, tampering with evidence, and criminal damage to property in 2023. He is serving a life prison sentence plus 25 years.

The slaying fueled concerns that the court’s pretrial detention supervision was seriously flawed, endangering the public by allowing dangerous defendants to remain free pending trial, which sometimes could take months or longer. Advocates of the release system contend the vast majority of those released on GPS monitoring do not commit new crimes while on the supervision.

But within months of Heyborne’s death, the state Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) beefed up GPS supervision in Bernalillo County by establishing an after-hours monitoring unit to supervise defendants wearing GPS monitors.

Court records show Heyborne was killed just after 5 p.m. on a Friday evening at his central Albuquerque apartment. Hours earlier Munford had stopped by pretrial services’ office to reactivate his GPS ankle monitor’s battery. The two men had met while in jail but in the days before the killing had been in a dispute over a stolen gun.

A pretrial services supervisor testified at Munford’s criminal trial that despite his violations of conditions of release by leaving his home area, the pretrial services officer on his case wasn’t responding to alerts and events the way she was trained and directed to. At the time, those officers were working remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and were using a limited number of cellphones, the supervisor stated.

In their homicide investigation, Albuquerque police interviewed a woman who recalled that Munford had once mentioned to the victim that his “probation officer doesn’t care and Devin goes anywhere he wants,” according to a criminal complaint.

By settling the Alires’ lawsuit, court officials admitted no wrongdoing. The agreement stipulated that Bernalillo County, also named as a defendant, would pay $25,000 of the total $365,000.

Ludella Awad, court spokeswoman, told the Journal that under the current program, “the Court’s pretrial services staff notifies the court, the prosecutor, and defense counsel of all apparent violations of conditions of release. Our procedures enable judges and law enforcement to respond promptly when a defendant has violated court-imposed restrictions, such as a curfew or travel limitations.”

New Mexico voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2016 that largely eliminated the former system of money bail bonds.

The change was intended to prevent low-level defendants from being kept in jail simply because they lacked money to post bail. It also authorized judges to order defendants to be held without bail pending trial if certain conditions were met.

But judges also have the authority to release criminal defendants with conditions such as those a judge ordered in Munford’s case.

Munford was initially arrested in December 2020 on charges that included shooting from a motor vehicle.

The 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, led by then-Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez, filed a motion to keep him locked up. But a state district judge denied the motion. While noting that prosecutors had shown Munford “may be a danger to the public,” the judge ruled they had failed to show that there were no conditions of release that could reasonably ensure public safety.

The issue of pretrial release, including bills for reforms that could keep more defendants in jail pending trial, consistently surfaces at the state Legislature.

“Public trust in the criminal justice system to fairly and responsibly enforce the law continues to erode,” stated the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee staff in a planning document issued earlier this year. Staff is considering proposals to improve oversight and “public trust in the pretrial risk adjudication process while ensuring constitutional rules are upheld,” the document stated.

Torrez, now state attorney general, said through chief of staff Lauren Rodriguez, “The New Mexico Department of Justice remains in active litigation with the 2nd Judicial District Court regarding its decision to withhold data coordinates related to GPS violations.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two television reporters who sought pretrial services’ records and GPS device violations. The 2nd Judicial District Court administration denied the requests, and a pretrial ruling in the case has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.

“Until the (2nd Judicial District) Court complies with the Inspection of Public Records Act and provides full transparency, we cannot have confidence that the GPS monitoring system is functioning effectively to keep the public safe,” Rodriguez said last week.