A New Mexico woman has been arrested after causing a crash that killed an officer and a retired firefighter and then lying about having been carjacked.
Jeannine Jaramillo, 46, faces charges including two counts of first-degree murder, authorities said in a news conference Saturday, after initially claiming she was a victim.
The car chase that led to the crash on Interstate 25 near Santa Fe Wednesday took the lives of Officer Robert Duran, 43, and retired firefighter Frank Lovato, 62.
Lovato was driving his personal vehicle and not involved with the pursuit.
Jaramillo initially claimed she had been carjacked at knifepoint, according to authorities. She was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries then released.
She was arrested Saturday, according to a New Mexico State Police news release, after evidence submitted to a lab Friday showed Jaramillo was the sole driver of the stolen vehicle involved in the crash.
DNA found on the airbag belonged to Jaramillo and evidence showed there had only been one person inside the vehicle at the time of the crash, according to New Mexico State Police.
Search warrant affidavits filed to seek DNA and evidence from Jaramillo’s cellphone said a police officer saw a woman get out of Jaramillo’s car but no other person.
She also faces charges of reckless homicide by vehicle, receiving and transferring a stolen vehicle, and tampering with evidence, according to the Santa Fe District Attorney’s office.
‘I believe the arrest of Jeannine Jaramillo has made our community safer,’ said Tim Johnson, chief of the New Mexico State Police
‘Her actions put the entire public in danger and took the lives of two dedicated public servants.’
Police had said immediately after the crash they were searching for a suspect described by Jaramillo as a man she’d dated briefly and that he had abducted her from an apartment complex following an argument.
Authorities said her story was ‘suspiciously similar’ to a statement she had given in a September 2021 case, when she reported that a man held her against her will with a knife to her neck and that he hid on the floorboard of the vehicle.
At the time she was charged with receiving a stolen vehicle, aggravated fleeing, and possession of methamphetamine, authorities said.
Court documents show Jaramillo was previously involved in pursuits in Cibola County in September and October.
She had told officers she had been carjacked but no other person was found.
Prosecutors dismissed both cases ‘pending further investigation.’
Jaramillo had said Friday that she was abducted, feared for her life, and didn’t see the man get out of the car after the crash because she blacked out briefly.
‘I crawled out the driver’s side window, I fell to the ground and I looked up and there was the police, and I just ran for my life, and I was screaming, “help me,”‘ Jaramillo said.
‘I’m crying, I was hysterical, I was in shock.’
Jaramillo had said it was wrong to suggest she was alone in the car.
‘I think people should understand that, when you are involved in a situation like that, I don’t think that it is right for them to say things that have their opinion, like that, until they are in a situation like that themselves,’ Jaramillo said.