NM Supreme Court Upholds Habitual Offender Ruling

Defendants must be informed about the possibility of facing additional prison time if their plea agreement involves multiple offenses and they violate probation, the New Mexico Supreme Court said. The split ruling issued Monday came in the case of a woman who admitted to having prior felony convictions. The court’s majority affirmed a district judge’s decision to lengthen the sentence of Christina Banghart-Portillo because of probation violations after her release from prison in 2016. She was a little over halfway through a three-year probationary period and had argued that the enhancement for being a habitual offender amounted to double jeopardy.