Albuquerque, NM — Today, Mark Ronchetti released a new ad entitled “Monique’s Story.” The ad features Monique Gonzales’ grandparents who raised her for much of her life. Helen and Jim Gonzales tell the painful story of Monique’s tragic murder by career criminal Chris Beltran, who was released early from prison twice by Governor Lujan Grisham and her Administration. 

Chris Beltran was a career criminal who had been in and out of prison several times over the last decade. He was released from prison early under Lujan Grisham’s COVID order on September 28, 2020 and put on a year of parole, per the judge’s sentence. Beltran immediately absconded from parole on October 6, 2020, and was tracked down and arrested on October 26, 2020.

Beltran was then required to serve his year of parole in prison and only eligible for limited good time, per state law. Since he absconded, Beltran was only eligible to receive up to 4 days of good time for every 30 days served, again per state law. However, Beltran was given nearly 5 times that amount — 4 months and 29 days of good time. According to documents from Lujan Grisham’s own corrections department, Beltran’s parole was supposed to end on November 21, 2021. Instead, Beltran was released almost 5 full months early on June 22nd by the Lujan Grisham Administration a second time. 

This illegal early release denied Monique the opportunity to relocate, or otherwise protect herself. 

In the days and weeks prior to his release, Beltran directly threatened Monique multiple times during recorded phone calls he made to her from prison. Monique tried to hide by quickly moving and refusing to tell Beltran where she was living. 

On the recorded calls, he threatened to beat her, shoot her, and hunt her down. He bragged about being able to quickly find a gun and even talked about using the Governor’s stimulus check – which she gave to inmates – to pay for a “really nice” gun. How these calls were missed by the Lujan Grisham Administration is mystifying. These calls were either not monitored at all, or the threats were ignored. To add insult to injury, it appears Beltran was illegally given “good time” by the Lujan Grisham Administration on the days he made these threatening calls. 

Four days after Beltran was released early for the second time— this time illegally — he hunted Monique down, banged on her windows and doors, and finally shot her in the face. The 34-year old mother died instantly on the porch of a small apartment her grandfather had just recently provided for her. 

Governor Lujan Grisham owns the prison-emptying policies that led to this tragedy. 

From appointing one of the most liberal politicians in the state to head her parole board, to ordering the early release of criminals from prison for two years under the laughable excuse that it was for COVID, Lujan Grisham has pursued a clear liberal policy objective of emptying our prisons. In less than four years, New Mexico’s prison population has been reduced by 26%, while the state is in the midst of a crime crisis. 

Unfortunately, the governor’s misguided agenda has real victims and Monique Gonzales is one of them. Governor Lujan Grisham is responsible for both of Chris Beltran’s early releases from prison and should feel ashamed that her policies led to Monique’s murder. 

Original source can be found here.