{"id":51658,"date":"2020-09-10T18:44:24","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T00:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-man-receives-3-years-probation-for-fatal-hwy-160-crash\/"},"modified":"2020-09-11T00:44:24","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T00:44:24","slug":"new-mexico-man-receives-3-years-probation-for-fatal-hwy-160-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-man-receives-3-years-probation-for-fatal-hwy-160-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico man receives 3 years\u2019 probation for fatal Hwy. 160 crash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Bloomfield, New Mexico, man accused of crossing the centerline on U.S. Highway 160, west of Hesperus, and killing a 56-year-old woman was sentenced Wednesday to three years\u2019 probation after pleading guilty to careless driving causing death.<\/p>\n

Authorities say Donald Mills, 31, was headed west when he lost control of the box truck<\/a> he was driving around 7:25 a.m. Dec. 26, 2018, hitting head-on a Ford Explorer with a family of four.<\/p>\n

Tary Martinez of Cortez died as a result of her injuries. Her husband, Douglas Martinez, and two grandchildren, ages 5 and 8 at the time, were taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center with injuries.<\/p>\n

The case was taken to trial in January, which resulted in a mistrial<\/a> after the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision about whether to convict.<\/p>\n

Another jury trial was scheduled to take place in October, but a plea agreement was reached that called for three years\u2019 probation. Mills must also pay for two highway memorial signs at the scene of the crash, as well as pay court fees and restitution, which have not yet been determined. He is not allowed to consume alcohol or drugs during the course of probation.<\/p>\n

Judge Dondi Osborne accepted the plea agreement Wednesday.<\/p>\n

According to the crash investigation, Mills was traveling about 50 mph on the highway when he hit an icy spot that caused him to lose control of the vehicle. The Martinez family was traveling about 39 mph before the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Mills, you should have been driving that truck slower,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cYou lost control \u2026 took Tary Martinez\u2019s life and changed the Martinezes\u2019 (lives) forever. And that loss for the Martinezes is immeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy District Attorney William Baird, prosecuting the case, said the plea agreement made the most sense given the circumstances. Mills was not under the influence of any alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an understatement to say this is a tragedy,\u201d Baird said.<\/p>\n

Members of the Martinez family spoke at Wednesday\u2019s sentencing hearing. While ultimately supporting the plea agreement, they said they would have liked to see Mills receive jail time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted a more severe punishment, but we need to move on,\u201d Douglas Martinez said. \u201cIf he breaks (the terms of probation), I think he needs to do jail time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mills\u2019 defense attorney, Katie Whitney, said the plea agreement was a compromise for both sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a day that\u2019s gone by he hasn\u2019t thought about the accident,\u201d Whitney said. \u201cIt\u2019s just awful all around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mills chose not to make a statement to the court Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The one issue Osborne did point out is Mills\u2019 seemingly \u201ccallous\u201d reaction to the crash and his actions that day. Mills reportedly told investigators he didn\u2019t think he was breaking the law and the crash was nothing more than an accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand you didn\u2019t do this on purpose, but careless driving is a crime,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cYou accept responsibility in the form of a guilty plea, but I\u2019m unclear whether it\u2019s in your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to an obituary, Tary Martinez is survived by her husband, two sons and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authorities say Donald Mills, 31, should have been driving slower<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1222,21,133,28,866,29,254,69],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bloomfield","tag-cortez","tag-courts","tag-headlines","tag-hesperus","tag-newsletter","tag-road-crash","tag-u-s-highway-160"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51658","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=51658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51658"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}