MDC inmate found dead at halfway house, fifth jail death under investigation in 2026

Andrew Witt, 45, was found dead at a halfway house Saturday while in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center’s Community Custody Program, a placement that lets some sentenced or pretrial inmates live in approved community settings under daily monitoring with court approval. Facility officials contacted MDC after finding him, and first responders tried life-saving measures before Witt was pronounced dead at the scene.

County officials said Witt had been placed in the Community Custody Program on March 24. Investigators estimated he died sometime between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 11, before the death was reported and emergency crews arrived. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office responded, and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator is expected to determine the cause of death.

The case puts fresh attention on how the county oversees halfway houses and other community-custody placements that move incarcerated people out of the jail and into less restrictive housing. Bernalillo County says the program is designed to allow compliance monitoring while still “ensuring the safety of the community,” making Witt’s death part of a broader question for neighborhoods that live near these facilities: how much supervision is in place, and how quickly problems are identified when an inmate is outside the jail walls.

Witt’s death is also being counted in a grim year at MDC. The Albuquerque Journal reported that his was the fifth MDC inmate death in 2026 under investigation, adding to ongoing scrutiny over deaths tied to the county jail system. With another death now under review, the focus again turns to the safeguards governing inmate placements in the community and whether those safeguards are visible enough to inspire trust from nearby residents.