Dec. 9—A Santa Fe police officer admitted Monday under questioning from an attorney that he violated the department’s pursuit policy during a high-profile car chase in March 2022 that ended in two deaths on Interstate 25.
Officer Julian Norris testified under cross-examination by an attorney that he and other police officers gave chase to a white Chevrolet Malibu because they believed a woman inside had been kidnapped and held hostage at knifepoint.
However, when the chase ended, the only person who got out of the car was Jeannine Jaramillo. The 49-year-old Albuquerque woman is charged in the deaths of Santa Fe police officer Robert Duran and retired firefighter Frank Lovato of Las Vegas, NM. Monday was the second day of her trial on two counts of first-degree murder and other counts.
Duran and Lovato crashed head-on while Duran actively pursued Jaramillo on I-25. She is accused of faking her own kidnapping and leading police on a mistaken highway chase.
Jurors were shown video footage of the chase and aftermath, in which Jaramillo told officers, including Norris, that a man who had poured gasoline on her and held her down with a knife had run into the bushes near the highway.
Pursuit under the microscope
Norris took the stand Monday morning, telling jurors that he was the third officer to join the chase, but took the “primary” position — meaning he was in the lead behind the Malibu — while the chase was still in Santa Fe was and before it reached the highway. . He saw the car make a U-turn, he said, so he turned around and took the first seat behind it.
Jaramillo’s attorney, David Silva, cited two sections of the Santa Fe Police Department’s pursuit policy that he believed Norris violated: one that stated that “no more than two law enforcement vehicles shall be actively engaged in a high-speed pursuit unless specifically authorized.” by a supervisor.” and another stating: “The primary unit may not be passed during the pursuit unless authorized by the primary pursuit unit and/or the supervisor in charge.”
Norris acknowledged that the sergeant who authorized the pursuit did not specifically authorize more than two officers to pursue the fleeing vehicle, but said he believed more than two officers would be necessary “to apprehend and account for the suspect.” ensure that [Jaramillo’s] safety.”
Silva handed Norris a copy of the policy and asked the officer if he had violated both sections he read aloud.
“Reading this, yes,” Norris said.
But prosecutor Jennifer Padgett Macias suggested that Norris had instead “taken the primary position” in the pursuit without actually passing other police cruisers and had “in effect complied with policy.”
Norris also agreed with her.
Videos played during the trial showed the white Malibu making several abrupt turns and U-turns during the chase, first within city limits and then on I-25.
“Officer, you know the expression ‘Monday morning quarterback’?” Padgett Macias asked Norris. “Are you familiar with the phrase ‘hindsight is 20/20’? With these phrases in mind, is there any way you could have known that discontinuing the pursuit would have changed the suspect’s path or route of travel?”
Norris said Jaramillo “appeared to be playing chicken” with oncoming traffic on I-25 and drove straight toward vehicles until they swerved.
Police have not yet determined whether officers involved in the incident violated the pursuit policy. Santa Fe Police Department Deputy Chief Ben Valdez wrote in an email Monday that an internal investigation into the chase — and whether any department policies were violated — “will be completed once the criminal case is resolved. .”
No kidnapping suspect in sight
A video played for jurors shows that after the crash, Norris pulled up behind the Malibu and stood next to his patrol vehicle with a rifle. Jaramillo got out of the driver’s side of the Malibu, ran over and shouted, “He was running that way.”
Norris testified on the stand Monday that he was confused at the time because he hadn’t seen anyone except Jaramillo come out of the Malibu. He also said he didn’t smell any gasoline on Jaramillo.
“He hit me – he hit me,” Jaramillo wailed in the video. ‘He wanted to set me on fire. He has a gun and a knife.’
As other officers set up a perimeter around the Malibu, suspecting there might be another suspect in the car, Officer Thomas Lopez picked Jaramillo up from the scene and drove her to a hospital, the video shows.
Lopez, who also took the stand Monday, said he drove past the crash scene with Jaramillo in the backseat, and after they arrived at the hospital, he learned from fellow officers that Duran had been killed in the collision.
Jaramillo began moaning and complaining of pain in various parts of her body as they parked at the hospital, according to Lopez’s body camera video.
Lopez testified that he asked Jaramillo several times if the man who kidnapped her had gotten out of the car, but she never gave him a straight answer.
As video showed Jaramillo crying and moaning about how she had been abused by the man, first in the backseat of Lopez’s car and then in the hospital bed, she sat in court Monday looking at the monitor and tearing up. wiping eyes with a tissue.
‘Out of nowhere’
Several people who witnessed the incident broke down in tears during their testimony on Monday, including a Colorado woman who said she injured her arm in a collision with a police vehicle.
Amber Moon of Tennessee said she was driving a tractor-trailer truck, and “in the blink of an eye” Jaramillo came barreling toward her truck “out of nowhere.”
The truck’s dashboard camera footage showed the white car driving head-on until the truck driver swerved to the right at the last moment.
When asked what she was thinking about at that moment, Moon said through tears, “I was thinking about my children.”
“It makes me very nervous,” Moon said. “It’s one of the reasons why I don’t travel in a truck in New Mexico at all, and why I don’t travel out of state, and try to be as close to home as possible.”
