{"id":82676,"date":"2025-08-14T17:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/82676\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T17:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:10:07","slug":"solomon-pena-gets-80-years-for-shootings-at-lawmakers-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/82676\/","title":{"rendered":"Solomon Pe\u00f1a gets 80 years for shootings at lawmakers’ homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 A failed political candidate was sentenced to 80 years in federal prison Wednesday for his convictions in a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in the aftermath of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

A jury convicted<\/a> former Republican candidate Solomon Pe\u00f1a<\/a> earlier this year of conspiracy, weapons and other charges in the shootings in December 2022 and January 2023 on the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque, including the current state House speaker.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors, who had sought a 90-year sentence, said Pe\u00f1a has shown no remorse and had hoped to cause political change by terrorizing people who held contrary views to him into being too afraid to take part in political life.<\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a\u2019s lawyers had sought a 60-year sentence, saying their client maintains that he is innocent of the charges. They have said Pe\u00f1a was not involved in the shootings and that prosecutors were relying on the testimony of two men who bear responsibility and accepted plea agreements in exchange for leniency.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was a necessary step toward Mr. Pe\u00f1a\u2019s continued fight to prove his innocence,\u201d said Nicholas Hart, one of Pe\u00f1a\u2019s attorneys. \u201cHe looks forward to the opportunity to appeal, where serious issues about the propriety of this prosecution will be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attacks took place as threats and acts of intimidation against election workers and public officials surged across the country after President Donald Trump and his allies called into question the outcome<\/a> of the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Pe\u00f1a resorted to violence in the belief that a \u201crigged\u201d election had robbed him of victory in his bid to serve in the state Legislature.<\/p>\n

The shootings targeted the homes of officials including two county commissioners after their certification of the 2022 election, in which Pe\u00f1a lost by nearly 50 percentage points. No one was injured, but in one case bullets passed through the bedroom of a state senator\u2019s 10-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

Two other men who had acknowledged helping Pe\u00f1a with the attacks had previously pleaded guilty to federal charges and received yearslong prison sentences. ___ This story was updated to correct that Pe\u00f1a\u2019s lawyers sought a prison term of 60 years, not five years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 A failed political candidate was sentenced to 80 years in federal prison Wednesday for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[12863,23,14597,12,1070,793,7922,3073,18320,2221,3828,3,57708,3833,111,4382,57707,2226,795,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-82676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-albuquerque","tag-america","tag-criminal-punishment","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-gun-violence","tag-indictments","tag-juries","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-new-mexico","tag-news","tag-nicholas-hart","tag-nm-state-wire","tag-politics","tag-shootings","tag-solomon-pea","tag-trials","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}