New Mexico man who killed mother about to be released from mental institution
A man who has spent a dozen of years in a mental institution after killing his mother will be released this weekend.
ABC-7’s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom has learned Justin Quintana will be released Sunday to a half-way house in Albuquerque. The decision to release Quintana was made during a hearing Friday afternoon in Las Cruces.
In January 2018, ABC-7 reported prosecutors, the defense attorney and Quintana’s own family agreed Quintana should not be released. Quintana admitted gunning down his mother, New Mexico State Police Officer Susan Kuchma, with her own service weapon in 2007.
During the summer of 2017, a judge ruled Quintana was “a danger to himself and to others and should be kept in a treatment facility until he is sane or no longer dangerous.”
Since Quintana was declared not guilty by reason of insanity, it could have been a violation of his civil rights to detain him indefinitely. Doctors diagnosed Quintana with schizophrenia and another judge ruled Quintana was incompetent to stand trial. Quintana was sent to a behavioral hospital in Las Vegas, New Mexico for 12 years.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported earlier this year the hospital said the state was violating Quintana’s civil rights – as a mentally ill patient – to have him committed indefinitely since he’s been declared not guilty – even if it’s by reason of insanity.
