2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 30 - Criminal Offenses
Article 47 - Resident Abuse and Neglect
Section 30-47-4 - Abuse of a resident; criminal penalties.

A. Whoever commits abuse of a care facility resident that results in no harm to the resident is guilty of a petty misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Subsection B of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978.

B. Whoever commits abuse of a resident that results in physical harm or great psychological harm to the resident is guilty of a fourth degree felony and upon conviction shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978.

C. Whoever commits abuse of a resident that results in great physical harm to the resident is guilty of a third degree felony and upon conviction shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978.

D. Whoever commits abuse of a resident that results in the death of the resident is guilty of a second degree felony and upon conviction shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978.

History: Laws 1990, ch. 55, § 4.

Complaint stated sufficient facts to support a conviction. — Where the state's complaint alleged that defendant was the attending physician of the decedent who had had a heart attack; the decedent had been receiving the anticoagulant drug Coumadin before the decedent was transferred to defendant's care; defendant increased the decedent's dosage of Coumadin; defendant failed to monitor the effect of the prescribed dosage by daily testing the decedent's blood, failed to consider and monitor the decedent's blood pressure medication, failed to act in response to the decedent's worsening symptoms, failed to order proper care upon discovery of blood in the decedent's stool, ordered a colonoscopy rather than determine whether the symptom was due to the Coumadin, and ordered the colonoscopy on a non-emergent basis despite the fact that the decedent required drastic and urgent treatment; and the decedent died due to blood loss from the excessively prescribed quantity of Coumadin, the state's complaint alleged sufficient facts to support a conviction under 30-47-4 NMSA 1978. State v. Muraida, 2014-NMCA-060, cert. denied, 2014-NMCERT-005.