Defense focuses on police pursuit policy as Jeannine Jaramillo’s murder trial continues

Dec. 9—A Santa Fe police officer admitted under an attorney’s questioning Monday he had 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 during cross examination by a defense attorney he and other police officers gave chase to a white Chevrolet Malibu because they believed a woman inside had been kidnapped and was being held hostage at knifepoint.

When the chase ended, however, the only person seen getting out of the vehicle was Jeannine Jaramillo. The 49-year-old Albuquerque woman is charged in the deaths of Santa Fe police Officer Robert Duran and retired Las Vegas, N.M., firefighter Frank Lovato. Monday was the second day of her trial on two charges of first-degree murder and other counts.

Duran and Lovato crashed head-on while Duran was actively pursuing Jaramillo on I-25. She has been accused of faking her own kidnapping and leading police on a wrong-way chase down the highway.

Jurors were shown video footage of the chase and aftermath, in which Jaramillo told officers, including Norris, a man who had poured gasoline on her and held her at knifepoint had run off into the bushes near the highway.

Pursuit under scrutiny

Norris took the stand Monday morning, telling jurors 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 and before it reached the interstate. He had seen the car making a U-turn, he said, so he turned and took the first position behind it.

Jaramillo’s attorney, David Silva, cited two parts of the Santa Fe Police Department’s pursuit policy he believed Norris had violated: one stating “no more than two law enforcement vehicles shall become actively involved in a high-speed pursuit unless specifically authorized by a supervisor,” and another stating “the primary unit shall not be passed in the pursuit unless authorized by the primary pursuit unit and/or the supervisor in charge.”

Norris acknowledged the sergeant who had 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 the suspect and ensure [Jaramillo’s] safety.”

Silva handed Norris a copy of the policy and asked the officer if he had violated both sections he had read aloud.

“From reading this, yes,” Norris said.

But prosecutor Jennifer Padgett Macias suggested, instead, Norris had “assumed the primary position” in the chase without actually passing other police cruisers and “in fact complied with policy.”

Norris agreed with her as well.

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’re familiar with with the phrase ‘Monday morning quarterback’?” Padgett Macias asked Norris. “Are you familiar with the phrase ‘hindsight being 20/20’? With those phrases in mind, is there any way that you could have known that calling off the pursuit would have changed the suspect’s path or course of travel?”

Norris said Jaramillo appeared to be “playing chicken” with oncoming traffic on I-25, driving straight toward vehicles until they swerved out of the way.

The police department has not yet determined whether any officers involved in the incident violated pursuit policies. Santa Fe police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez, in response to questions from The New Mexican, wrote in an email Monday an internal investigation into the chase — and whether any of the department’s policies were violated — “will be completed once the criminal case has been resolved.”

No kidnapping suspect in sight

A video played for jurors shows Norris pulled over behind the Malibu after the crash and stood beside his patrol vehicle with a rifle. Jaramillo got out of the driver’s side of the Malibu and ran toward him, yelling, “He ran that way.”

Norris testified on the stand Monday he had been confused at the time because he hadn’t seen anyone except Jaramillo get out of the Malibu. He also said he did not smell gasoline on Jaramillo.

“He hit me — he hit me,” Jaramillo whimpered in the video. “He was going to light me on fire. He has a gun and a knife.”

As other officers set up a perimeter around the Malibu, believing a suspect was potentially still inside the car, Officer Thomas Lopez picked up Jaramillo from the scene and drove her to a hospital, the video shows.

Lopez, who also took the stand Monday, said he drove by the crash scene with Jaramillo in his backseat, and after they arrived at the hospital he learned from fellow officers Duran had died in the collision.

Jaramillo began moaning and complaining of pain on various parts of her body when they parked at the hospital, Lopez’s body camera video shows.

Lopez testified he had asked Jaramillo several times whether the man who kidnapped her had gotten out of the car, and she never gave him a straight answer.

While videos showed Jaramillo crying and moaning about how she had been battered by the man, first in the backseat of Lopez’s vehicle and then in the hospital bed, she sat in the courtroom Monday watching the monitor and wiping tears from her eyes with a tissue.

‘Out of nowhere’

Several people who had witnessed the incident broke down into tears while testifying Monday, including a woman from Colorado who said she had injured her arm in a crash with a police vehicle.

Amber Moon of Tennessee said she was riding in a semitrailer truck, and “in the blink of an eye” Jaramillo came speeding toward her truck “out of nowhere.”

Dashboard camera video taken from the truck showed the white car speeding toward it head on until the truck driver swerved to the right at the last second.

When asked what she was thinking about in the moment, Moon said, through tears, “I was thinking about my kids.”

“It makes me very nervous,” Moon said. “It’s one of the reasons why I don’t travel in New Mexico at all in a truck, and why I don’t travel out of state, and try to be as close to home as possible.”

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