{"id":14205,"date":"2025-12-31T03:40:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-prelim-rescheduled-in-dwi-crash-that-killed-cortez-man-on-u-s-491\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:00","slug":"update-prelim-rescheduled-in-dwi-crash-that-killed-cortez-man-on-u-s-491","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-prelim-rescheduled-in-dwi-crash-that-killed-cortez-man-on-u-s-491\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Prelim rescheduled in DWI crash that killed Cortez man on U.S. 491"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=7c67c0f5-49c6-50b9-b913-169ecc66ba87&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Casey Wade Russell, 45, was arrested Dec. 22, 2025, for his alleged involvement in a fatal drunken driving crash on U.S. Highway 491.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">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><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The Arizona man accused of killing a Cortez man in a drunken driving crash was not in court Tuesday after his preliminary hearing was continued.<\/p>\n<p>San Juan County Senior Trial Prosecutor Ronald Colquitt Dec. 26, filed a motion for continuance, in the vehicular homicide case of Case Wade Russell, 49 of Fort McDowell, Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>Colquitt wrote in the Dec. 26 motion that he was \u201cout of jurisdiction for administrative leave for the holidays\u201d on Dec. 30, and would not be available to preside over the hearing<\/p>\n<p>Russell was arrested Dec. 22 and booked into the San Juan County Detention Center on charges of second-degree felony homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and petty misdemeanors of a first DWI and open container.<\/p>\n<p>He was released the next day on his own personal recognizance and was ordered to appear Dec. 30 in San Juan County Magistrate Court. The preliminary hearing now is set for 8:30 a.m. Jan. 15.<\/p>\n<p>Russell acknowledged the \u201cconfirmation\u201d for his hearing in an Dec. 29 email to the court in which he notified the court that he no longer lives in Gilbert but in Fort McDowell, Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>Russell was driving a 2015 GMC pickup at 4:56 p.m. Dec. 22 on U.S. Highway 491 near milepost 95, less than 2 miles north of Shiprock, when he reportedly crossed the center line while attempting to pass a commercial vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Russell allegedly struck a yellow Veloster head-on, killing its driver, Richard Morales of Cortez, the complaint states.<\/p>\n<p>Morales worked as a nursing supervisor at Northern Navajo Medical Center and was driving home to Cortez, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>A commercial truck driver, Phoenix Rayne, has been listed as a witness in the case against Russell, as he provided a video of the crash to New Mexico State Police Officer Dominic Deltsoi, who responded to the scene and investigated.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=36.822115404696%2C-108.69166705718&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>Deltsoi, also a witness for preliminary hearing, questioned Russell after the crash in the emergency room at Northern Navajo Medical Center.<\/p>\n<p>Russell initially denied driving and \u201casserted he didn\u2019t remember what happened before the crash,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n<p>However, after further questioning, Russell admitted he was driving the pickup and was the only occupant, the complaint states.<\/p>\n<p>Deltsoi 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<p>Russell consented to a blood draw to measure alcohol content, the complaint states.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-6321b19a7e31912b76a974a9ccb5991f\">Editor\u2019s Note: This article was updated to provide information about Russell\u2019s preliminary hearing being postponed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona charged on suspicion of drunken driving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14206,"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-14205","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\/14205","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=14205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19384,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14205\/revisions\/19384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}