A sentencing hearing for an Albuquerque couple had not been scheduled as of July 14, 2026, after they admitted their role in the 2024 drug overdose death of their 1-year-old daughter, who prosecutors say overdosed at a Super Bowl party. Monique Sanchez and Thomas Soto each pleaded guilty in July to felony charges tied to the child's death, and each faces up to 15 years in prison under their plea agreements.
Albuquerque police were dispatched on February 12, 2024, to the couple's apartment near Montgomery Boulevard and Interstate 25 after the child was found unresponsive, according to abqjournal.com. The child died from acute fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity, the outlet reported. KOB reported that the child overdosed at a 2024 Super Bowl party, and that according to prosecutors, Soto had already run away by the time police arrived.
Two Other Children Also Tested Positive
Investigators determined that the couple's two other children living in the home also tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamine, the Journal's report notes. Drug residue was also found on a jacket left on the couch where the child had been sleeping, per the same account.
Sanchez and Soto each pleaded guilty Monday, July 13, to abandonment of a child resulting in death and child abuse, the article states. The plea agreement caps their potential sentences at 15 years each, though a separate, lower-confidence syndicated report has indicated Sanchez could be facing 18 years — a discrepancy that has not been independently resolved in the available reporting. No sentencing hearing had been scheduled as of July 14, 2026.
Part of a Broader Overdose Crisis
The case lands amid what state health data describe as a persistent overdose crisis in New Mexico. The state's drug overdose death rate has ranked among the highest in the nation for most of the last two decades, and its death rate has more than tripled since 1990, according to figures from the New Mexico Department of Health's indicator-based information system.
New Mexico recorded 900 opioid deaths in 2025, a 21% increase from the year before, and now ranks fourth among states for its overdose death rate, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. Fentanyl has accounted for nearly 70% of the state's overdose deaths over the past decade, the paper reported, and 28 New Mexico children age 14 or younger died from overdoses between 2013 and 2024, including 12 from fentanyl specifically.
Synthetic opioids other than methadone made up more than 85% of the state's drug overdoses in 2025, up from fewer than 15% in 2015, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The New Mexico Department of Health separately reported that overdose deaths rose sharply in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024 — up 48% in Rio Arriba County, 104% in Santa Fe County and 340% in Taos County — with fentanyl linked to the majority of those fatalities.
Another Albuquerque Case Ended in an 18-Year Sentence
The Sanchez-Soto case follows another Albuquerque prosecution involving a child's drug death. A woman was sentenced to 18 years in prison for her daughter's 2023 death from toxic methamphetamine exposure. Jurors convicted Tesillo of first-degree child abuse resulting in her daughter's death and third-degree child abuse involving a second daughter; prosecutors described the motel room where the family lived, near Interstate 40 and Coors NW, as a drug house, and police recovered burnt foil, a scale, Suboxone strips, a white powdery substance and prescription pills there.
