{"id":39473,"date":"2022-07-14T17:39:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T23:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ignacio-woman-accused-of-killing-road-worker-in-car-crash-pleads-not-guilty\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:49:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:49:53","slug":"ignacio-woman-accused-of-killing-road-worker-in-car-crash-pleads-not-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ignacio-woman-accused-of-killing-road-worker-in-car-crash-pleads-not-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignacio woman accused of killing road worker in car crash pleads \u2018not guilty\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Sandoval family wants justice for Dominic Sandoval, who was struck by a vehicle while setting up a work zone Feb. 10 on Colorado Highway 172, about 2 miles south of Elmore\u2019s Corner. The Sandovals wore matching red shirts with Dominic\u2019s picture on Thursday in Durango. Diana Lee, Sandoval\u2019s mother, holds Dominic\u2019s niece, Liliana Arriola. From left: Latasha Descheenie, Carlos Arriola, Antonio Arriola, Ryanna Sandoval and Tylene Brown. (Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An Ignacio woman suspected of careless driving causing the death of a Farmington man in February pleaded \u201cnot guilty\u201d to seven misdemeanor charges Thursday in 6th Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

Virginia Cundiff, 24, is charged with careless driving causing death and bodily injury, driving without a license and possession of drug paraphernalia, among other offenses.<\/p>\n

A trial is scheduled for December.<\/p>\n

Cundiff is accused of causing the death of Dominic Sandoval, 24, and injuring another man when she crashed into a work truck on Colorado Highway 172, about 2 miles south of Elmore\u2019s Corner. Sandoval and his work partner were setting up a work zone along the right shoulder when Cundiff crashed into them and their work truck at 47 mph, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\"Dominic
Dominic Stuart Sandoval, 22, was killed in a car crash Feb. 10 east of Durango. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sandoval died from his injuries after smashing through the passenger side of Cundiff\u2019s windshield, law enforcement said.<\/p>\n

Sandoval\u2019s family attended Thursday\u2019s court hearing at La Plata County Courthouse. They dressed in matching red T-shirts with a picture of Sandoval and text that read, \u201cJustice for Sandoval.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cundiff attended the hearing virtually from the La Plata County Jail.<\/p>\n

Cundiff\u2019s defense requested a reduction in bail, which was set at $50,000 after she violated terms of previous bail conditions.<\/p>\n

Deputy District Attorney Vance Davis argued against Cundiff\u2019s request for a bail reduction, saying she failed to appear in court three times for a previous case, failed to appear twice in her current case and failed to comply with pretrial drug and substance testing.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The) defendant has been arrested a few times in this case and has been released on bond and has failed miserably to comply with the terms and conditions of the bond,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n

He said her bail was increased after several people reported seeing Cundiff driving on a revoked license after having been charged with causing the death of Sandoval.<\/p>\n

Cundiff\u2019s defense lawyer argued that Cundiff is receiving treatment from Axis Health System and is on medications for PTSD and anxiety; that her primary source of annual income comes from chokecherry picking in the late summer and fall, which is approaching; and that she wants to support her son.<\/p>\n

Sixth Judicial District Judge Todd Norvell denied Cundiff\u2019s request for a bail reduction. He said he imposed the bail conditions, which included substance-abuse testing and no driving, to \u201censure the safety of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Cundiff has a drug problem,\u201d he said. \u201cThat increases the risk of harm to the public. I\u2019ve also ordered that she not drive because the evidence in this case is strong on the careless driving resulting in death and the careless driving resulting in injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Sandoval family wants justice for Dominic Sandoval, who was struck by a vehicle while setting up a work zone Feb. 10 on Colorado Highway 172, about 2 miles south of Elmore\u2019s Corner. The Sandovals wore matching red shirts with Dominic\u2019s picture on Thursday in Durango. (Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He said Cundiff has missed previous court dates, tested positive for methamphetamines and violated other conditions of pretrial services.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve given her chance after chance, and here we are,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the request is denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

On July 1, the judge dismissed a felony charge accusing Cundiff of crashing into a \u201cpublic utility service vehicle.\u201d He said the felony charge didn\u2019t quite line up with the alleged facts of the case, because the vehicle Cundiff is suspected of hitting didn\u2019t meet the definition of a \u201cpublic utility service vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

After attending Cundiff\u2019s court hearing Thursday, Sandoval\u2019s family said they planned to visit his roadside memorial on Colorado Highway 172. The Colorado Department of Transportation told Diana Lee, Sandoval\u2019s mother, that his memorial must be removed because it is a potential distraction to drivers, Lee said.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Lee said she was caught off guard when the felony charge was dropped. Sandoval\u2019s brother-in-law, Carlos Arriola, said Cundiff \u201cgot off on a technicality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee said her family is seeking justice for Sandoval. They plan to start a petition and meet with Colorado lawmakers to discuss ways to amend the laws so that careless driving causing the death of roadside workers results in a more serious charge.<\/p>\n

She said Sandoval would have given the shirt off his back, and he was always smiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my birthday, he planned to take me to Vegas. That didn\u2019t happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sandoval wanted to go back to school to become an electrician, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s lives get cut short \u2013 everything comes to a halt for us, but the world keeps going,\u201d Arriola said. \u201cIt\u2019s rough, but there\u2019s got to be some sort of change.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"The
The Sandoval family wants justice for Dominic Sandoval, who was killed after being struck by a vehicle while he was setting up a work zone Feb. 10 on the side of Colorado Highway 172, about 2 miles south of Elmore\u2019s Corner. (Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

bail reduction, sets trial date for December<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[133,168,950,28,1235,475,867],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-la-plata-county-courthouse"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39473","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=39473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84343,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39473\/revisions\/84343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39473"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}