A hearing for House Bill 255, also known as the "Juvenile Corrections Act," was held on the Senate floor on Thursday, March 20, 2025, but it failed to pass on a 13-24 vote on Friday after midnight. Democrats and Senate Republicans defeated the measure. The proposal was aimed at tackling juvenile crime in New Mexico. MORE: Juvenile Crime bill dies in committee, New Mexico lawmakers reactThe bill is sponsored by Democrat state Sen. Antonio "Moe" Maestas and Democrat state Reps. Nicole "Liz" Thomson, Art De Le Cruz and Anita Gonzales. On Friday, March 21, 2025, KOAT spoke with state Sen. Antonio Maestas shortly after. He expressed disappointment after Friday's decision. KOAT also spoke with Republican state Sen. Nicole Tobiassen on her decision to vote against the measure. She also expressed what she believes needs to be done. Get the Facts: New Mexico's Children's codeIf it passed, the bill would have made changes to New Mexico's Children's code. According to Maestas, it would have also increased the length of probation for released underage defendants from 90 days to 6 months, among other things. "Outside of the budget, no bills were passed regarding juvenile justice, criminal justice as it relates to juveniles, those folks under 18. This bill was a compromise bill. It was worked on over the interim. There was amendments put on in the House. It was interesting because we compromise on taxes, we compromise on the budget, but folks were not willing to compromise on a crime bill. The section of law enveloped our entire children's code," Maestas told KOAT."Everybody had an opinion with regards to what should be in the code as opposed to comparing the bill to current law. This bill would have moved us forward on criminal justice reform," Maestas added. "It would have allocated $6.1 million to programming, extended the length of probation, gave district court judges more discretion over sentencing. It was a good bill. Was it perfect? No, but it was a start. And so it's very disappointing that my colleagues found an excuse to vote no instead of finding multiple reasons to vote yes," Maestas said. "Honestly, it just wasn't strong enough of a bill," Tobiassen told KOAT."Our caucus predominantly made a stand of a 'no' vote because he would not accept common sense amendments, mine in particular, that addressed all juveniles, all juvenile murderers, and mandating that during their incarceration they have mental health services, mandating during probation, they have mental health services, and extending that time," Tobiassen said.Related: Arrest warrant had been issued for 11-year-old before deadly hit-and-run, police say"Six months for a juvenile murderer, his caucus overwhelmingly was saying that these children have been traumatized, they come from all different horrible family situations. If that's the case, then why aren't we mandating longer sentences where we're isolating them from trauma, giving them the mental health services that they need," Tobiassen added."That's what the session supposedly has been about. We passed SB 1, 2, and 3 because of that. The crime package was supposed to mirror the mental health package, and it hasn't done that," Tobiassen said.New Mexico lawmakers were shaken by the recent juvenile arrests of Johnathan Overbay, 13, William Garcia, 16 and Messiah Hayes, 11. All three are accused of intentionally killing Scott Dwight Habermehl with their vehicle, while Habermehl was riding his bike to work at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in May 2024. "That 11-year-old and 13-year-old and 15-year-old that ran over Scott Habermehl, that man is the father of a legislative assistant for Sen. Campos right here in this building. She was here when she got the call from her mother to come home because he'd been in a tragic accident. This is unacceptable," Tobiassen said. "These kids need our attention and our help, and at the same time, they need to be held accountable, and we must send a message to the juvenile violent criminals in this state that it's not a badge of honor to go to jail for 20, 21 months. It's not going to happen that way anymore. We have to do more," Tobiassen told KOAT."It shook us to our core, but instead of turning that sadness into action, that sadness turned into frustration. So, it's unfortunate that this bill didn't get across the finish line. Our heart goes out to the family of that tragedy. Instead of my colleagues comparing the bill to current law, they compared the bill to what they perceived as perfection. That's not smart governing, that's not good lawmaking. So, I'm very disappointed," Maestas said."The children's code has not been updated since 1993. This would have been the first amendments to that code. So, when people read the code, they saw numerous flaws in it. So instead of moving forward with this compromise bill, people found a reason to vote no," Maestas said. MORE: Bernalillo County DA says juvenile crime needs to be addressed"If a special session is called for whatever reason, we should definitely make improvements to the children's code. We need to hold the young people accountable. We need penalties commensurate to the harm, to the community, and we need to rehabilitate all former defendants because everyone gets out," Maestas told KOAT.The 60-day legislation session ends on Saturday, March 22, 2025.Stay updated on the latest news updates with the KOAT app. Download here.