一 | SANTA FE, N.M. -- A judge on Friday ordered an attempted murder trial for 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 outside a government office.State District Court Judge Jason Lidyard found sufficient evidence to support charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon against 23-year-old Ryan David Martinez in connection with the shooting that was recorded by bystanders with cell phones and by surveillance cameras.Martinez was arrested on Sept. 28 after chaos erupted and a single shot was fired at an outdoor gathering in Española over canceled plans to install a bronze likeness of conquistador Juan de Oñate, who is both revered and reviled for his role in establishing early settlements along the Upper Rio Grande starting in 1598.The shooting wounded Jacob Johns, of Spokane, Washington, a well-traveled activist for environmental causes and an advocate for Native American rights who is of Hopi and Akimel O’odham tribal descent. Multiple videos show Martinez attempting to rush toward a shrine at the center of prayers and speeches in opposition to installing the statue on that spot — only for Martinez to be blocked physically by a group of men. Voices can be heard saying, “Let him go,” as Martinez retreats over a short wall, pulls a handgun from his waist and fires one shot.Lidyard said Martinez should have known he was provoking a crowd with contrary views who opposed the statue's installation as he repeatedly tried to push or rush past peaceful demonstrators. He highlighted that Martinez had arrived with a fully loaded, concealed handgun in a holster and had a second loaded handgun in his car with two additional loaded magazines of ammunition at hand.“Mr. Martinez’s intentional acts of attempting to enter into an area of counter protesters, whether or not it was a public area, would lead a reasonable person in his same circumstances to know that it would cause provocation,” Lidyard said at a county courthouse in rural northern New Mexico. That he “would intentionally provoke them while knowing full well that he was carrying a concealed firearm is sufficient to find probable cause for attempted murder in the first degree.”The ruling followed nearly five hours of testimony from law enforcement officers, including a sheriff’s deputy who says Martinez repeatedly directed an expetive at him and people around him without obvious provocation. Eyewitnesses testimony was also provided, including from a 23-year-old woman who said Martinez leveled the gun at her after wounding Johns.Martinez, of Sandia Park, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Defense attorney Nicole Moss said her client came to take pictures with his cell phone, never hid his identity and was shoved to the ground by several larger men.“Fearing for his life because he was so outnumbered by all these men, he pulled his firearm that he possessed lawfully — he had a concealed carry permit — and he fired one shot at Mr. Johns in self-defense,” she said.The judge also ordered that Martinez remain incarcerated while awaiting trail, citing a long list of safety concerns, some based on newly revealed evidence that Martinez appeared to be converting semi-automatic guns at home to automatic weapons and was building untraceable gun parts at home using a 3D printer. State police also interviewed a former neighbor of Martinez who told them he saw Martinez out at night in a residential neighborhood dressed in body armor with an assault-style rifle and handgun.The judge said he also weighed in violent threats Martinez made against the U.S. Federal Reserve banking system on social media as early as 2018, noting Martinez the FBI warned him in 2020 to refrain from further threatening behavior.Johns remains in fragile health at a hospital in Albuquerque, according to his mother LaVerne McGrath, who attended Friday's hearing. She fought back tears during witness testimony and repeated viewings of videos of the shooting.“I'm sad but I'm really honored for all of the support that's been given to this community, to my son,” she said. “He's got people from around the world joining hands.”Five of Martinez's relatives, including his father, attended the proceedings but declined to comment. They gathered in a circle to pray during one court recess.。 LONDON -- Britain's main opposition Labour Party has decisively won two special elections, snatching seats in Parliament that were long rock-solid bastions of the governing Conservatives.Results early Friday showed that voters in Tamworth, central England, and Mid-Bedfordshire, north of London, switched from Conservatives to Labour in almost unprecedented numbers, solidifying Labour's status as front-runner ahead of a national election next year.Labour leader Keir Starmer claimed his party was “redrawing the political map.” Labour candidate Sarah Edwards took Tamworth, where the Conservatives won by almost 20,000 votes in 2019, and Labour's Alistair Strathern took Mid-Bedfordshire by overturning a 25,000-vote Tory margin.John Curtice, a polling expert at the University of Strathclyde, said the “exceptional swings” to Labour could be compared to the collapse in Conservative support under Prime Minister John Major in the 1990s.“And we all know how that ended," he said — in a landslide 1997 election victory for Labour under Tony Blair.Others cautioned that turnout in Thursday's voting was low, and the elections were unusual because they replaced lawmakers who both resigned under a cloud.Tamworth legislator Chris Pincher quit after Parliament’s standards watchdog recommended he be suspended for “completely inappropriate” behavior after groping two men at a London private members’ club. Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’ s reluctance to sanction Pincher when the allegations emerged helped trigger Johnson’s ouster at the hands of his own party last year.Mid-Bedfordshire member of Parliament Nadine Dorries resigned over the treatment of Johnson and her own failure to be appointed to Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords. Dorries is a strong ally of Johnson who has blamed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for helping to topple the former leader.Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands blamed the losses on “legacy issues” and said people were “happy with the job Rishi Sunak is doing as prime minister.” The results add to pressure on the governing party, which has lost several byelections since Sunak took office just under a year ago. He replaced Liz Truss, who announced her resignation a year ago Friday after her plan for unfunded tax cuts sent financial markets into turmoil and rocked the economy.Truss spent just seven weeks in office after winning a party leadership contest to replace Boris Johnson, who quit after three years in office when scandals over money and ethics turned party lawmakers against him.Sunak steadied the economy but has not managed to boost the party’s rating in opinion polls, where it consistently lags between 10 and 20 points behind Labour. A national election must be called by the end of 2024.Friday's results confirm polls showing the Conservatives are losing support across the country, from affluent southern voters turned off by Brexit to working-class northern voters who switched from Labour in 2019 after Johnson promised to spread prosperity to long-neglected areas.。
Current article:http://83y4.niaozaogunbaizhaiguaweng.bond/5480/bxj35v6.html
Published on:09:01:49