{"id":13145,"date":"2026-02-26T15:59:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preliminary-exam-waived-in-dwi-crash-that-killed-cortez-nurse\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:34:57","slug":"preliminary-exam-waived-in-dwi-crash-that-killed-cortez-nurse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preliminary-exam-waived-in-dwi-crash-that-killed-cortez-nurse\/","title":{"rendered":"Preliminary exam waived in DWI crash that killed Cortez nurse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Casey
Casey Wade Russell, 45, was arrested Dec. 22, 2025, for his alleged involvement in a fatal drunken driving crash on U.S. Highway 491.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Feb. 23 preliminary examination was waived for a man suspected of a drunken\u2011driving crash that killed a Cortez nurse who worked at Northern Navajo Medical Center.<\/p>\n

Evidence that would have been presented during the hearing showed that the blood\u2011alcohol content of Casey Wade Russell was 0.24 g\/100 mL, which is twice the legal limit, according to a report from the New Mexico crime lab.<\/p>\n

Russell, 45, of Gilbert, Arizona, was charged with misdemeanor DWI, open container and second\u2011degree felony homicide by vehicle in the death of Richard Morales of Cortez.<\/p>\n

Morales, who was the nursing supervisor at Northern Navajo Medical Center, was driving home around 4:56 p.m. Dec. 22 on U.S. Highway 491 near milepost 95 when his yellow Veloster was struck head\u2011on by a 2015 GMC pickup reportedly driven by Russell, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

A witness to the crash, Phoenix Rayne, a commercial truck driver, told New Mexico State Police Officer Dominic Detsoi that he saw the GMC pickup cross the center line in an attempt to pass him. He also reportedly provided the state police with a video of the crash, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

Russell initially denied driving and \u201casserted he didn\u2019t remember what happened before the crash,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n

However, after further questioning, Russell admitted he was driving the pickup and was the only occupant, the complaint states.<\/p>\n

Detsoi noted in the complaint that he \u201csmelled a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from\u201d Russell, and the man had bloodshot and watery eyes.<\/p>\n

Russell had worked for the Mesa, Arizona, Fire Department since 2006 and was a captain when the accident happened. He was placed on paid administrative leave from his $124,462\u2011a\u2011year job, according to the city of Mesa.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is no longer employed as of Feb. 3,\u201d said Kevin Christopher, spokesman for the city of Mesa.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s case was bound over to 11th Judicial District Court, and his arraignment is set for 8 a.m. March 9 in front of District Court Judge Stephen Wayne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arizona fire department captain\u2019s BAC was twice the legal limit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18833,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13145\/revisions\/18833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13145"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}