Woman Accused in Fatal High-Speed Crash Appears in Court

Crime roundup

Jeannine Jaramillo, the 46-year-old woman charged with two counts of murder resulting from a high-speed wrong-way chase March 2, appeared in court for the first time yesterday, though with little to say. Jaramillo waived her right to a pretrial detention hearing, but still faces one to determine if she will remain jailed until her trial. Jaramillo, who prosecutors say fabricated a kidnapping ruse before initiating a deadly chase that resulted in the deaths of Santa Fe police Officer Robert Duran and retired firefighter Frank Lovato, faces a maximum penalty of two life sentences plus 18 years in prison for the murder charges, along with a slew of other charges from the incident. Her preliminary hearing for those charges is scheduled for March 24.

Meanwhile, First Judicial District Judge Glenn Ellington granted a delay yesterday until March 22 for Karl Rougemont, the City of Santa Fe employee accused of killing coworker Christopher Vigil during an alleged road-rage incident. And in Albuquerque yesterday, one woman was killed and two other people injured during what police described as an “active shooter situation.” According to the Albuquerque Journal, two officers sustained minor gunshot wounds and “multiple officers” fatally shot the armed suspect who died at the scene.

Lawsuit filed in police public records fight

The Foundation for Open Government and the Santa Fe New Mexican filed a complaint yesterday against the city of Rio Rancho alleging it has “wrongfully shielded” from public view police reports and 911 audio and transcripts stemming from the shooting death of 2-year-old Lincoln Harmon, son of Santa Fe police officer Jonathan Harmon, in his Rio Rancho home last December. According to FOG, Rio Rancho City Attorney Greg Lauer issued what amounted to a blanket denial for records sought by the New Mexican and FOG under the Inspection of Public Records Act, citing the Children’s Code, a section of law designed to hold confidential certain information held by the Children, Youth and Families Department. Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office last week issued a letter stating the records had been improperly denied and should be released. Since then, a second request has been filed, and yet to be filled. “The only circumstance that seems to distinguish this case from the scores of cases in which police departments (including Rio Rancho’s) unquestioningly honor IPRA requests for information about suspected crimes involving child victims or perpetrators is that a police officer is one of the parties under suspicion,” the complaint says. Both FOG and the Santa Fe New Mexican—along with numerous other media outlets—also wrote supporting briefs in SFR’s records case against the Santa Fe Police Department, which currently is awaiting a ruling from the state Appeals Court.

Heinrich, Luján vow to fight proposed VA closures in NM

A proposal from the US Department of Veterans Affairs to close some community-based clinics in New Mexico and other rural areas in the country prompted quick opposition from members of Congress yesterday, including US Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, both New Mexico Democrats. Heinrich’s office says the recommendations could impact the delivery of health care services at clinics in Gallup, Las Vegas, Española and Raton. “Closing down community-based outpatient clinics that New Mexico veterans rely on is not an option—and it will not happen without a fight,” Heinrich said in a statement. “I will fight like hell every step of the way to save these clinics and improve access to the quality care and benefits that our veterans earned through their service.” Luján also released a statement, saying he would “fight against any recommendation that closes facilities or requires our Veterans travel longer and further for care. It is also unconscionable to push our Veterans for VA care to local providers that are already strained.” Heinrich and Luján also wrote a joint letter to US Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough objecting to the plan, which notes that New Mexico has ninth largest percentage of veterans by state population and “faces one of the worst health care shortages in the United States.”

COVID-19 by the numbers

Reported March 14:

New cases: 367; 515,532 total cases (yesterday’s new case count was initially reported as being the results from the weekend, and later represented to SFR as three-day results including March 11. We have a pending request seeking clarity)To that end, ICYMI, the health department yesterday unveiled new reduced daily reporting for COVID-19, which no longer includes daily new cases by county, and reports new statewide cases on a 24-hour delay, along with new deaths, current hospitalizations and numbers of ventilated patients. That data should be posting by 2 pm daily on the state’s epidemiology reports page, although it was delayed yesterday and did not fully report all new cases due to a “technical difficulty.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new “community levels” tracking system—which uses case counts and two hospital metrics in combination—all of New Mexico’s counties currently have “low” levels, except for Harding, Hidalgo and McKinley counties, which have medium levels.

Breakthrough cases: According to the most recent weekly vaccine report, between Feb. 7-March 7, 44% of COVID-19 cases were among people who had not completed a primary vaccination series; 28.2% were among those who had completed the series but had not received a booster; and 27.8% were among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. For hospitalizations, those figures change to 61.9%, 18.7% and 19.4%. The percentages shift to 63.9%, 18.7% and 17.4% for fatalities.

Deaths: as of Sunday, 28 new deaths reported; there have been 7,078 fatalities statewide. Hospitalizations: 108; Patients on ventilators: 13

Vaccinations: 91.9% percent of adults 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 78.2% have completed their primary series; 44.9% of adults 18 years and older have had a booster shot; 12-17-year-old age group: 71.2% of people have had at least one dose and 61.3% have completed their primary series; Children ages 5-11: 38.9% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 30.1% have completed their primary; Santa Fe County: 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 87.1% have completed their primary series.

Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Listen up

New Mexico poet Hakim Bellamy—Albuquerque’s former poet laureate—participated in the most recent Citizen Saturday, a project from Citizen University, which “brings friends and strangers together to nurture a spirit of shared purpose.” Listen to Bellamy’s poem, “Civic Symphony (A rehearsal for ‘the real thing’)” right here.

Waiting for water on the Navajo reservation

Marie Claire magazine presents a first-person account from Thoreau, NM resident Amanda L., a 36-year-old mother of five who lives on the Navajo Nation and has been on a waiting list to receive running water for the last four or five years. Nonprofit DigDeep put in a 1,200-gallon water tank in the ground and installed a pump for Amanda’s family that supplies the kitchen and drinking water. “For showering, we borrow water from St. Bonaventure’s supply, which is at least five miles away, and we bring it back to the house in five-gallon buckets,” she says. For the bathroom, the family rents from the Water and Sanitation Department in Gallup for about $100 per month. Prior to the DigDeep installation in 2018, “we would haul 25-gallon buckets every two days to retrieve water,” even if it was snowing or raining as otherwise the family would run out of water in two days. “Nobody in the community wants to let anybody know they don’t have water,” she says. “It’s kind of like you’re on your own. You don’t want people to look down on you. You don’t want people to feel sorry for you, so you keep it to yourself.” But the pump broke during the pandemic, and DigDeep was unable to reinstall, due to COVID-19 precautions, until January of this year. “They say that the United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world,” Amanda concludes. “Why are citizens still living in a third-world country with no access to clean water? They send so much money to help other people with these issues, but they need to stop turning a blind eye to their own citizens and try to figure out a way to help them.”

Striking a chord in Clovis

If Clovis doesn’t jump immediately to mind when you think about the history of rock and roll, be sure to read “Record Keeper,” a recent New Mexico magazine story by writer John T. Davis about the Norman Petty Recording Studios. Petty and his wife Vi, Davis writes, “helped shape the ‘Clovis sound’ along with the careers of Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly.” Studio owner Kenneth Broad leads tours of the studio, which houses memorabilia from its heyday—Robert Plant came by for a visit last year, he says—and partnered with Clovis Community College to restore downtown’s Mesa Theater, recently renamed the Norman and Vi Petty Performing Arts Center. If you can’t make it to Clovis right away, here’s a taste. You can also scope out the discography and listen to a playlist. While Holly and Orbison helped make the studio famous, Broad says he was “a lot more interested in the Norman Petty Trio’s own music, like ‘Almost Paradise.’” As for Petty, he thought “Buddy was the most complete musician he had ever recorded.”

Let the sun shine

Santa Fe should see a high near 60 degrees today, sunny skies and a north wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Enjoy it while you can: The National Weather Service forecasts a chance for storms Wednesday night, followed by a chance of snow and rain on Thursday.

Thanks for reading! The Word appreciated Neiman Lab’s in depth look at the inspiring work of journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud, shot by Russian forces in Ukraine last weekend. She also recognizes today’s news assemblage is exceptionally grim, and recommends this NY Times interactive music feature for a little respite.