{"id":23023,"date":"2025-03-24T12:55:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T18:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-man-receives-6-year-sentence-in-fatal-crash\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:23:15","slug":"aztec-man-receives-6-year-sentence-in-fatal-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-man-receives-6-year-sentence-in-fatal-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec man receives 6-year sentence in fatal crash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Christopher
Christopher Middlebrook, 29, was sentenced to six years in prison in connection for a 2019 fatal crash on Highway 550.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An Aztec man was sentenced to six years in the Department of Corrections for a 2019 fatal crash.<\/p>\n

Christopher Middlebrook, 29, admitted during a Jan. 6 plea hearing that he caused a crash on July 17, 2019, that killed Amy Huaman and injured Cynthia Mortensen.<\/p>\n

Middlebrook was sentenced by 11th Judicial District Judge Curtis Gurley on March 19. Huaman\u2019s family and Mortensen and her family asked the judge to consider Middlebrook\u2019s behavior during and after the crash.<\/p>\n

Middlebrook admitted he was driving around 100 mph \u201ccoming to Aztec from Durango for a court case,\u201d according to audio log notes.<\/p>\n

He claimed Huaman turned in front of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struck that car, killing one and injuring another,\u201d he stated in court. \u201cThe way I was driving that day insinuated I didn\u2019t care for anyone more than myself, yes more than just speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant District Attorney Jules Grandjean told the court that just prior to the accident, another \u201cdriver had to swerve out of the way,\u201d and that Middlebrook \u201cdid not employ brakes,\u201d but \u201cattempted to swerve and continue on,\u201d before striking the vehicle. Middlebrook also reportedly \u201cwalked off and told others, \u2018I think they\u2019re dead,\u2019\u201d right after the crash, Grandjean said.<\/p>\n

Middlebrook, however, said in court that \u201cnot a day goes by that I don\u2019t think of this.\u201d He apologized to Mortensen and to Huaman\u2019s family, and stated that he had completed rehabilitation and made positive changes.<\/p>\n

Grandjean informed the court that Middlebrook on Feb. 24 picked up new drug-related charges of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer. In that case, it was alleged that Middlebrook \u201cwas on drugs\u201d and refused to give his infant child back to the mother.<\/p>\n

Priscilla Perez called police at 4:27 p.m. to report that Middlebrook took her car keys away \u201cand tried to have their kids go with him,\u201d according to the statement of probable cause. San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Brandon Bull wrote in the report that Middlebrook \u201crefused numerous commands\u201d including those to give the child back to the mother, and pulling \u201caway,\u201d when the deputy attempted to arrest him.<\/p>\n

Defense Attorney Shane Goranson said his client \u201cwill never do this again,\u201d because \u201cguilt and shame are the most powerful emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, court records show that in 2021 Middlebrook was charged with a petty misdemeanor for driving 21-25 mph over the posted limit.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he was charged with driving without a license, resisting, evading or obstructing an officer and criminal damage to property. He pleaded guilty to the resisting charge.<\/p>\n

In 2023, he was charged with aggravated battery against a household member, but the charge was dismissed by the San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office. Then there was the new charge in February.<\/p>\n

Goranson admitted during the sentencing that his client \u201chas a long problem with addiction,\u201d but is now a \u201csober working husband and father,\u201d who came from a family of drug addicts and felons.<\/p>\n

Gurley stated that he was troubled by the fact that Middlebrook had \u201cfive negative contacts with law enforcement\u201d since the 2019 crash. Gurley sentenced Middlebrook to nine years in the Department of Corrections but suspended three years for time served on supervised probation. Middlebrook will face two years of parole when released from prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Middlebrook picks up new charges weeks before sentencing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23023","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=23023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77947,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23023\/revisions\/77947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23023"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}