Dec. 19—SANTA FE — A woman convicted of causing a 2022 wrong-way crash that killed a Santa Fe police officer and a retired firefighter was sentenced Thursday to a minimum of 60 years in prison.
Jurors on Dec. 12 found Jeannine Jaramillo, 49, responsible for leading police in a high-speed chase against traffic on Interstate 25 near Santa Fe, resulting in a fatal head-on collision.
Killed in the crash were 43-year-old Santa Fe police officer Robert Duran and 62-year-old Frank Lovato, a retired firefighter from Las Vegas, New Mexico.
First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ordered Jaramillo to serve the two life sentences consecutively. Jaramillo repeatedly interrupted the judge during the sentencing, arguing that she had not committed murder.
“You have taken the lives of two outstanding members of our community,” Marlowe Sommer told Jaramillo during the sentencing. She said Jaramillo initiated the high-speed pursuit by asking a bystander to call 911 and report that she was being held in her car at knifepoint.
“This was a priority one for law enforcement,” Marlowe Sommer said. “You led (police) through busy streets, driving in the opposite lane of traffic at times on residential streets, and then you purposely drove on the exit ramp on Interstate 25 going directly against oncoming traffic.” The wrong-way pursuit led to the fatal crash between Lovato and Duran, she said.
Jaramillo repeatedly made interjections during the judge’s narrative.
“I am not a murderer. I am not,” Jaramillo shouted. “I was not in that crash.”
The judge silenced her. “I’m sentencing you,” Marlowe Sommer said. “I’m making observations, and you may not interrupt me. After five days of evidence and testimony, the jury said you did.”
Family members of Duran and Lovato spoke at the two-hour sentencing hearing, describing the impact on their families.
“The loss of my husband will continue to impact my family for the rest of our lives,” said Duran’s wife, Kathleen Duran.
“We do our best to enjoy our lives as Robert would want us to but there’s not a day that goes by that we don’t feel his loss or the hole that his absence leaves,” she said.
Robert Duran’s sister, Angela Gamino, said she suffers depression as a result of her brother’s death.
“My family has been completely shattered and there is nothing I can do to fix this,” Gamino said. “The pain of losing him, especially under such senseless circumstances, is overwhelming.”
Gamino said Duran called her children every day.
“He always wanted them to know that he was thinking of them and he loved them,” she said. “That was the kind of guy he was.”
Before her sentencing, Jaramillo apologized to the families and told the judge she had struggled with drug addiction.
“I’d like to say I’m sorry to the family with all my heart,” Jaramillo said. “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done, for my actions. I’m not an evil person.”
Jaramillo also said that the death of the two men an accident.
“I would never run into anybody on purpose,” she said. “It was an accident.”
Her attorney, David Silva, said his client understood she was facing mandatory prison time for her convictions.
“She does ask that you factor in her remorse,” Silva said. “She asks that you factor in her history of drug use and being a victim of domestic violence and run who charges concurrent.”
Marlowe Sommer rejected Silva’s request to run the two live sentences concurrently. She also rejected Jaramillo’s claim that the fatal crash was an accident, citing the “length of time you led officers on this high-speed chase and the choices you made.”
Jurors deliberated about four hours last week before finding Jaramillo guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and other charges.
Each first-degree murder conviction requires Jaramillo to serve at least 30 years in prison before she is eligible for parole. By running the two sentences consecutively, Marlowe Sommer required Jaramillo to serve at least 60 years.
The jury also convicted Jaramillo of great bodily injury by vehicle, aggravated fleeing, possession of a stolen vehicle and making a false report.
Wrong-way pursuit
Prosecutors told jurors during the trial that Jaramillo set the fatal events in motion by falsely telling a bystander to call 911 because an armed man had taken her hostage.
The 911 call brought police to Vizcaya Apartments, 2500 Sawmill Road in Santa Fe, where officers began chasing a white Chevrolet Malibu, first on Santa Fe streets, then onto I-25.
Jurors viewed startling police dash-camera video showing Jaramillo driving 90 mph the wrong way on I-25 as other drivers swerved and pulled over to avoid head-on collisions.
Video also showed the fatal collision. Lovato avoided a collision with the Malibu, then collided head-on with Duran’s police car. Both men died at the scene.
Following the fatal crash, the Malibu collided with a heavy GMC truck that disabled the Malibu.
Officers testified that they saw Jaramillo crawl out of the driver’s side window, then claim that a boyfriend named Mark Lopez had held her captive and forced her to flee police. Officers later determined that Jaramillo was alone in the car during the pursuit.