1 week Ago
A woman who was convicted Thursday of two counts of first-degree murder and other charges for feigning her own kidnapping and leading police on a wrong-way chase in which two people died is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Jeannine Jaramillo, 49, of Albuquerque, will be sentenced at 2:30 p.m.
on Dec. 19 in state District Court in Santa Fe, according to online court records and a statement issued Friday by the Administrative Offices of the Court. Jaramillo faces two life sentences in connection with the deaths of Santa Fe Police Officer Robert Duran, 43 and retired Las Vegas, N.
M. firefighter Frank Lovato, 62. They died in March 2022 after crashing into one another on Interstate 25 while Duran was chasing a Malibu driven by Jaramillo, who was headed south in the northbound lanes of the freeway.
Lovato, who was not involved in the incident, was traveling north in the northbound lanes when he swerved to avoid the Malibu and collided with Duran, according to evidence presented at Jaramillo's recent trial. Duran was the only the third Santa Fe Police officer to die in the line of duty and the first since 1933 to be killed on the job. Per evidence presented at trial, Jaramillo had stolen the Malibu and she and her boyfriend had spent the night before in the vehicle in the parking lot of a Santa Fe apartment complex.
The pair quarreled in the morning and Jaramillo asked a man in the lot to call 911, falsely claiming she was being held against her will. As police responded to the parking lot, Chavez got out of the car and Jaramillo took off, Chavez testified at her trial. Thinking she was a kidnapping victim, four police officers including Duran gave chase, following Jaramillo onto the freeway where she proceeded to drive the wrong way, resulting in the crash.
.
