Chasing the Changing Story

A week has passed since the driver of a white Chevy Malibu led police on a high-speed chase the wrong way down Interstate 25 near the Old Pecos Trail exit, ending in a multi-vehicle crash that snarled traffic for hours and shook Santa Fe.

The narrative on March 2 seemed straightforward enough, though tragic and terrifying: Authorities said a man carjacked a woman at knifepoint in the parking lot of the Vizcaya apartments, then kidnapped her. A neighbor called 911, and several Santa Fe Police Department officers rushed over and began their pursuit.

It ended a short time later with the crash, which left 43-year-old SFPD Officer Robert Duran and retired Las Vegas, NM, firefighter Frank Lovato, 62, dead.

The suspect, police told Santa Feans, fled on foot and a “manhunt” was under way.

What’s happened in the seven days since has amounted to a bizarre, slow-burn unraveling of the story.

There was no carjacking, no male suspect, no chance for the search to end in success. Instead, New Mexico State Police, who took over the investigation for SFPD, arrested 46-year-old Jeannine Jaramillo in Albuquerque on Saturday on two counts of first degree murder and one count each of motor vehicle theft, aggravated fleeing from a law enforcement officer and evidence tampering, all felonies.

Jaramillo, who had initially been cast as the victim, concocted the whole story, authorities alleged at a news conference announcing the charges. She’d been driving the Malibu, allegedly stolen from Las Vegas, NM, and she’d led police on a chase at least once before, then cooked up a kidnapping tale in Grants—an accusation SFR has verified through court records.

As law enforcement officials laid out their case, Jaramillo was allegedly trying to smuggle a gram of suspected methamphetamine and a syringe into the Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility, which led to yet another charge, this one for drug possession. She appeared in court Tuesday afternoon via video conference.

Her lawyer, Richard Pugh, declined to comment on the charges, saying he had not yet reviewed the case or met with Jaramillo.

State Police investigators were suspicious of Jaramillo’s role in the pursuit almost immediately, yet they didn’t let on for nearly four days.

Jaramillo avoided the initial crash—which killed Lovato and Duran—in the northbound lanes of I-25, and SFPD Officer Julian Norris continued to chase her south until she collided with another vehicle a short distance down the road, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed Monday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

Among other new details, the affidavit says officially for the first time that SFPD officers also were driving the wrong way down the interstate as they chased the vehicle—first northbound, in the southbound lanes, then the other direction, but still against oncoming traffic.

Norris told a State Police agent a short time after the crash that Jaramillo and no one else exited the Malibu, the affidavit states. Agents later found the keys to the Malibu in the backseat of the police car Jaramillo had been sitting in, and further investigation showed only the driver’s side airbag had deployed.

Still, the night of the crash, State Police Chief Tim Johnson said in a televised roadside interview that a “manhunt” was ongoing for the male suspect. The next day, local television stations flooded Santa Fe with cameras to interview concerned residents and push out headlines about a “community shaken” and people “on edge.”

State Police issued a news release Thursday afternoon saying the agency “does not believe that there is an ongoing threat to the public,” but didn’t explain further. Later that night, Johnson told SFR that his investigators were starting the investigation “from zero,” but declined to say whether he still believed Jaramillo’s story.

On Friday, the Albuquerque Journal reported Norris’ statements about what he saw after the crash, but State Police held firm, telling the newspaper they were still “working on identifying and locating” a carjacking suspect.

State Police officials did not respond to emailed questions from SFR about why they didn’t update the community sooner, as it became clear Jaramillo’s initial story was falling apart.

Officials finally offered their new, full version of events at a news conference in Santa Fe on Saturday afternoon, March 5.

District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies on Tuesday filed a motion asking state District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to hold Jaramillo in jail pending trial. A hearing on that motion is set for Monday at 3 pm.

SFPD has scheduled a public memorial service for Officer Duran at 1 pm Saturday at the Rio Rancho Events Center. Duran, who joined the department in 2015, lived in Rio Rancho with his wife and two teenage sons.