Santa Fe,NM : Taos man gets 6 years for fatal crash on November, Thursday 9th 2017

A judge sentenced a Taos man Thursday to six years in prison for causing a 2014 crash in Rio Arriba County that killed his girlfriend and injured another woman while he was driving under the influence of prescription pills and marijuana.

Santiago Martinez, 27, was driving a Mercedes convertible owned by his 24-year-old girlfriend, Lindsay Hinds, on the wrong side of U.S. 84 about a mile outside of Chama when he crashed head-on into a pickup driven by Lylon E. Vigil of Dulce.

Hinds died at the scene, and Vigil and Martinez both suffered serious injuries.

Police found syringes filled with marijuana extract in Martinez’s vehicle, and prosecutors said during his trial in June that the driver had a “cocktail” of prescription medications and marijuana in his system. But public defender Sydney West said the amount of marijuana in Martinez’s system was below legal thresholds for impairment in states where marijuana is legal and that the levels of prescription drugs in his system were “therapeutic.”

A jury convicted Martinez of homicide by vehicle while under the influence of liquor or drugs, great bodily harm by vehicle while driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.

Deputy District Attorney Erik Scramlin asked District Judge Jennifer Attrep to give Martinez the maximum sentence, 10 years and 14 days in prison, and not to suspend any time.

Attrep sentenced Martinez to 10 years and 14 days as Scramlin had requested, but suspended four years and 14 days, leaving a total of six years in prison. Martinez will be credited for a year he spent in jail while his case was pending, and he will be eligible to earn day-for-day “good time” credit in prison — meaning he could be free in about three years if he behaves well behind bars.

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Taos man gets 6 years for fatal crash