{"id":23435,"date":"2025-02-22T01:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T08:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hatfield-blood-draw-warrant-illegal-says-defense-attorney\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:36:25","slug":"hatfield-blood-draw-warrant-illegal-says-defense-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hatfield-blood-draw-warrant-illegal-says-defense-attorney\/","title":{"rendered":"Hatfield blood draw warrant \u2018illegal,\u2019 says defense attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A motion has been filed to suppress blood evidence in the drunken driving case of the former Montezuma County district attorney.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Arlon Stoker filed the motion on Feb. 17, stating that the results of a blood draw taken from Christian Hatfield after an Aug. 30, 2024, crash in San Juan County \u201care the fruit of an illegal warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoker asked the judge to throw out \u201cany results of scientific testing and any testimony pertaining to any blood draw.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the law enforcement report, \u201cthe results show that at the time of the blood draw, which was approximately eleven hours after the time of the crash due to medical issues, were 0.05 g\/100 ml of Ethanol and 0.04 mg\/L of Zolpidem (Ambien). Both Ethanol and Ambien are Central Nervous System Depressants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatfield was in a single-vehicle crash about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64 near County Road 5099 in Bloomfield, according to the motion and accident reports.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield is interviewed at the scene of a crash at the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and San Juan County Road 5099 about 1 a.m. Aug. 30. (Screenshot from body camera)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hatfield \u201cwas seriously injured in the accident,\u201d and was transported by ambulance to San Juan Regional Medical Center, according to the motion and accident reports.<\/p>\n

The accident was investigated by San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s deputy. Avery Killifer, who applied for a search warrant to draw Hatfield\u2019s blood at 11:12 a.m. Aug. 30, which was more than \u201c10 hours after the accident,\u201d the motion states.<\/p>\n

The search warrant for blood draw states that Hatfield was \u201cunconscious\u201d and unable to give consent, and that he had an \u201codor of an alcoholic beverage,\u201d had \u201cblood shot\/watery eyes,\u201d a \u201clack of dexterity\u201d and an \u201copen container in driver\u2019s possession.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Mexico State Police report says there was \u201can alcoholic beverage located on the front right passenger floorboard labeled Mexican lager,\u201d and there was a \u201cpill bottle with several pills inside next to this open container.\u201d It was labeled Ambien and was prescribed to Hatfield.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield, 59, after an alleged DWI crash on Aug. 30 on U.S. 64 outside of Bloomfield.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The search warrant, which Stoker alleges is \u201cillegal\u201d was signed by Magistrate Russel Bradford.<\/p>\n

Stoker states in the motion that the search warrant for blood sample was issued in violation of New Mexico State Statute 66-8-11, and therefore the \u201csearch was unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the law a \u201csearch warrant for a blood draw from a DWI suspect\u201d can only be approved by a judge if there is \u201cprobable cause that the suspect caused great bodily harm or death of another while driving while intoxicated,\u201d or if there is \u201cprobable cause that the suspect committed a felony while intoxicated,\u201d according to the motion.<\/p>\n

Hatfield was charged with a first DWI, which is a misdemeanor offense in New Mexico, and while he was the only person in the vehicle at the time of the single-vehicle crash, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant and police reports.<\/p>\n

Stoker argues in the motion that deputy. Killifer \u201cfailed to allege any circumstances required by 66-8-11, and none of the required circumstances were present, the warrant should be quashed and the test results excluded from evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoker further questions the reliability of the test results stating that Hatfield had been in the hospital for nearly 11 hours prior to the blood draw, and medical staff had treated him with such chemical substances as \u201cFentanyl, Midazolam and Zolpidem,\u201d which are \u201cnarcotics and hypnotics\u201d that affect \u201cthe metabolism of alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the \u201clapse of time and medical procedures,\u201d Stoker says there are questions about the tests \u201creliability and relevance,\u201d so he asks the evidence be suppressed.<\/p>\n

A hearing in the Hatfield case is set for 9 a.m. Feb. 24 at the McKinley County Courthouse with District Judge R. David Pederson presiding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

motion to suppress blood evidence in former DA\u2019s DWI case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23435","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\/23435","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=23435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78117,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23435\/revisions\/78117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23435"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}