State Police: Carjacking Story Fake

State police say the woman who claimed to have been kidnapped and carjacked last week in Santa Fe made up the story and was herself the person who led police on a chase that killed two people.

The driver who led police on a wrong-way chase down Interstate 25 on March 2 outside Santa Fe has been jailed and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer and tampering with evidence.

State Police arrested Jeannine Jaramillo, 46, in Albuquerque on Saturday afternoon after evidence from the stolen car she allegedly crashed led them to a theory of the case that was radically different from what they originally believed.

Santa Fe Police initially responded to a 911 call in response to an alleged kidnapping and carjacking initiating at Santa Fe’s Vizcaya apartments. That call led to a police chase on I-25 where a suspect’s car drove in the wrong direction, culminating in a crash that killed Santa Fe Police Officer Robert Duran, 43, and Frank Lovato, a 62-year-old retired firefighter.

According to a state police news release, after the crash, Jaramillo told officers she was a kidnapping victim. She was later transported to a local hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and later released. According to Jaramillo, an unidentified male subject fled the area on foot. He was described only as wearing a red shirt, black pants, and a black jacket. Police now say there is no such man.

“She is accused of fabricating the kidnapping and carjacking story and leading officers on a deadly chase,” said State Police Deputy Chief Carolyn Huynh at a briefing Saturday night. “The New Mexico State Police have concluded through our detailed investigation that there was never a kidnapping or a male suspect involved. We believe Jaramillo led officers on a chase, driving the suspect car and causing the fatal crash that killed Officer Duran and Mr. Lovato. We have evidence that backs up this conclusion.”

Among that evidence is that investigators found the key fob for the white Chevrolet Malibu that led the chase in the back seat of the Santa Fe Police vehicle Jaramillo was placed in after the crash, the state police wrote in a news release. Officers also extracted data from the vehicle’s computer which showed only the driver seat was occupied at the time of the crash, and technicians at the state crime lab also concluded the major DNA profile on the Malibu’s deployed airbag matched with Jaramillo’s.

The car had been reported stolen from Las Vegas, New Mexico on Feb. 28. The owner of the vehicle was warming up the Malibu and left the key fob inside at the time it was stolen.

Jaramillo, who Huyhn said was “considered a transient,” has been accused in multiple criminal cases dating back to 2013, including several that involved felony charges.

One of them, from September 2021, has a similar fact pattern to the case in which was charged Saturday.

Grants police officers and Cibola County sheriff’s deputies chased a vehicle through Grants as it weaved in and out of oncoming traffic, then other lanes and ultimately stopped it with a spike belt. Jaramillo was the driver, according to court records, and the vehicle had been stolen.

Jaramillo told authorities a man had held a knife to her neck “and forced her to flee from law enforcement,” court records state. She continued: “Every time [she] tried to stop, the male would punch [her] in the stomach.”

“However, based on my observation during the pursuit…this was not possible,” a deputy wrote in a criminal complaint. He later reviewed video that showed Jaramillo had been the driver. She was charged with aggravated fleeing from a law enforcement officer, possession of methamphetamine and receiving or transferring a stolen car.

Prosecutors dismissed the case without prejudice “pending further investigation” on Sept. 20, 2021, court records show.

In 2015, she pleaded in Bernalillo County of aggravated battery on a police officer, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle and two counts of resisting, evading or obstructing a police officer, court records state. Jaramillo was sentenced to three years probation in that case.

First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said at the Saturday briefing that Jaramillo’s previous charges will factor into how this case is treated.

“Now that Jeannine Jaramillio is in custody, my office plans to file a pretrial detention motion in District Court on Monday morning in the hopes the judge will keep Jeannine Jaramillo in custody through the date of her trial,” Carmack-Altwies said. “Through this horrific chain of events, we have seen the danger and damage that Ms. Jaramillo is capable of if she is to remain out in the public.”

State police investigators say they still are not sure what Jaramillo was doing at the Santa Fe apartment complex or whether she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.

Duran’s death marks the first officer killed on duty in Santa Fe since the 1930s. Duran was born in Artesia but met his wife while living in California. The couple, along with their two sons, had returned to New Mexico in 2012 and Duran joined the department in 2015.

“After much thought and prayer, Robert chose to become a police officer with the City of Santa Fe in 2015. It was not an easy decision, and we knew there were risks, especially in this day and age where officers are sometimes targeted at random simply for being law enforcement,” his wife, Kathleen, wrote in a statement SFPD released Friday. “It was also a period of time where law enforcement was under scrutiny, and the nation is still calling out for reform. He had always considered law enforcement as a career but did not want to risk not being here for his boys. It came down to preserving a future for our children that compelled him to take a leap of faith and follow his heart. If good people who care about the safety and development of our communities are not willing to stand up and take risks to make our world a better place, then what hope is there for our society and our children?”

A GoFundMe account Duran’s niece set up for the family had raised more than $38,000 as of press time.

Lovato, 62, had been a firefighter in Las Vegas from the time he was a teenager to his retirement in 2006. A family member who posted on social media after his death said he was traveling from Las Vegas to Albuquerque to receive kidney dialysis.

Interim Santa Fe Police Chief Paul Joye on Saturday thanked state police and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department for answering calls in the city while the department grieves.

“I hope today brings us a step closer toward closure for us as a department as a family as a community and again offer my condolences to Robert’s family and to Mr. Lovato’s,” Joye said.