'Usually reserved for crazy people': New Mexico MAGA plotter likely to try defense critics say is 'madness'
A failed Republican candidate for the New Mexico statehouse is accused of orchestrating a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of Democratic leaders might try to use a defense "usually reserved to crazy people," according to one legal expert.
Solomon Peña is accused of conspiring with four other men to carry out four shootings in the Albuquerque area of two Bernalillo County commissioners and two state legislators after losing his election. MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos told "Morning Joe" that prosecutors had a strong case against the failed candidate.
"They have a lot of evidence, and what you're likely going to see, they're going to cooperate the co-conspirators, and they will come into court, point the finger at this defendant and identify them," Cevallos said. "These are ideal people that the government will go to and cooperate because they have plenty of liability. By all indications, this was hardly the perfect crime. It was a stupid crime, and when you have stupid co-conspirators, the state goes to them, and says, 'Hey, you know, how loyal are you to this guy who's definitely going down?' They'll end up cooperating."
Multiple witnesses have said that Peña believed the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and he believed his own election loss was the result of fraud, and Cevallos said that sets up the possibility that his defense attorneys will blame the former president for his crime.
"I have to bring us back to the Jan. 6 prosecutions in which some of the defendants raised the defense of 'Trump made me do it,' and that was really interesting because, as a defense attorney, you don't get to pick your facts," Cevallos said. "Prosecutors pick the facts they take to trial, so in fairness to the defense, as wacky as that defense sounds, 'Trump made me go into the Capitol,' sometimes as a defense attorney you don't have a lot. You come up with whatever you can, whatever the judge will let you put into evidence, and try your best. Is it successful? Probably not."
"The mere fact that it's being considered as a possible defense tells us that we're at a different political place in this country where you can even consider saying that the president made me do it," he added. "That kind of defense is usually reserved for crazy people at home who think, you know, their TV is bugged or the aliens have landed in their backyard. This is not a defense you ever would have imagined 10 years ago or even six, seven years ago. It's madness."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
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