Chase ends with suspect stuck in rolled car

Wheel comes off as SF deputy pursues

SANTA FE — A Los Alamos man faces several charges after he was pulled over for a traffic stop about 3:15 a.m. Saturday, then got back in his car and sped away as a deputy took a break from making him perform field sobriety tests.

Matthias Jaramillo, born in 1993, ended up losing a wheel during the ensuing chase, kept going for more than a mile after that and eventually crashed his car. The 2004 Toyota had apparently rolled twice and was on its roof, with Jaramillo trapped inside, when the pursuing Santa Fe County deputy caught up. Jaramillo was charged with DWI, speeding, evading an officer and reckless driving.

According to a sheriff’s office report, the deputy clocked the Toyota going 75 mph in a 55 mph zone while traveling westbound on N.M. 502, the road between Pojoaque and Los Alamos. The deputy smelled a “heavy odor,” which Jaramillo said was his cologne. As the two conversed, the deputy could tell Jaramillo had alcohol on his breath, and Jaramillo admitted to drinking several hours earlier, the report says.

After the deputy had Jaramillo start performing field sobriety tests outside the Toyota, the deputy went back to his patrol car to adjust the dash-cam. That’s when Jaramillo got back in the Toyota and sped away, westbound toward Los Alamos, according to the report.

The deputy said that Jaramillo’s car was going at least 100 mph as he pursued. The chase ended near the intersection with N.M. 4, which goes to White Rock, where the Toyota was found on its roof on a grassy berm. The doors of the car wouldn’t open. Jaramillo was extracted by the Los Alamos Fire Department and treated at Los Alamos Medical Center and released. He refused a test to determine his blood alcohol content. Deputies later determined that the Toyota had hit rocks along the highway 1.1 miles before the crash site and lost its right rear tire and wheel, which were found off the road.

A Matthias Jaramillo with the same birth year was charged with DWI in June 2014 in Los Alamos Magistrate Court, entered a guilty or no contest plea and received a deferred sentence, and in September 2016 was charged with driving on a revoked license. The second case was dismissed, court records show.