Testing ordered for fatal crash suspect

Driver faces one count of vehicular homicide

A judge on Wednesday ordered a woman charged in a fatal suspected drunken-driving crash to complete required breath tests and other conditions of her release or remain in jail pending trial.

Danielle Archuleta, 41, of San Felipe Pueblo faces one count of vehicular homicide (driving while intoxicated) in a wrong-way crash that killed Nikhil Adhi, 29, on Interstate 40 in January 2021.

An out-of-state man, Adhi was traveling through New Mexico at the time he was killed, the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

“Ms. Archuleta is presumed innocent,” Archuleta’s attorney, Noah Gelb, said in a written statement. “Important questions remain about the strength of the evidence in this case and the thoroughness of the government’s investigation.”

Archuleta is required to complete four Soberlink breathalyzer tests each day as a condition of her release, Rob Miller, a pre-trial services official, testified at a hearing Wednesday. Failure to complete a test by more than an hour is considered a missed test, he said.

Archuleta had three such violations since her previous compliance hearing on Jan. 18, Miller said.

Second Judicial District Judge Lucy Solimon warned Archuleta to comply with conditions of her release, but did not order her held in custody.

“You can be held in jail until your trial date, Ms. Archuleta,” Solimon said. Archuleta responded that she understood.

Nancy Laflin, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, said a warrant was issued for Archuleta’s arrest on Feb. 1, 2021, a day after the fatal crash. She was arrested June 1, 2022. Archuleta was seriously injured in the crash, Laflin said.

According to an arrest warrant filed in Metropolitan Court, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputies responded shortly after midnight on Jan. 31, 2021, to a fatal two-car crash on I-40 in western Bernalillo County.

Archuleta’s Honda Accord was traveling west in the eastbound lanes of I-40 when it collided head-on with Adhi’s Toyota Corolla, the affidavit said. Adhi died at the scene.

Archuleta was transported to University of New Mexico Hospital, where deputies obtained a warrant to test Archuleta’s blood, it said.