Prosecutors add hate crime allegations in shooting over Spanish conquistador statue
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — State prosecutors have added hate-crime allegations to charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon against a New Mexico man accused in the shooting of a Native American activist amid confrontations about aborted plans to reinstall a statue of a Spanish conquistador in public. At court proceedings Thursday in northern New Mexico, defendant Ryan David Martinez of Sandia Park pleaded not guilty to all charges. A prosecutor indicated that the office will pursue sentence enhancements based on the use of a firearm and try to prove that the shooting was motivated by bias against a particular social group.
